Correspondent
WOKHA, SEP 29 (NPN): Residents of Police Reserve Colony and parts of Blue Hill and Zuvotong in Wokha have been facing prolonged disruption of electricity supply, with the Police Reserve and NAP camp areas remaining without regular power since September 4.
The outage has severely affected household activities, work, studies, communication and other essential daily needs. Residents said repeated efforts had been made to bring the matter to the attention of the Power Department, but restoration has remained pending. Inverters have run out of charge, refrigerators have remained switched off, and perishable food items have been spoiled. The disruption has also affected the functioning of the Office of the Superintendent of Police, Wokha, located within the Police Reserve premises.
Speaking to the media, Executive Engineer, Electrical Division Wokha, Er. Chenosing Kemp, said the transformers supplying the Police Reserve and NAP camp areas had been damaged due to overloading and were undergoing repairs at the transformer repairing centre in Dimapur. He informed that the Police Reserve and NAP camp are supplied by separate 100 kVA transformers, while the SP office has a separate 25 kVA transformer, which also belongs to the SP Department and has been sent to Dimapur for repairs with assistance from the Power Department.
Kemp said restoration of power to the Police Reserve and NAP camp could not be given a definite timeline as no suitable standby 100 kVA transformer was presently available for temporary adjustment. He explained that the Dimapur repairing centre handles transformers from across Nagaland, resulting in a waiting period before the damaged units can be repaired and returned.
Meanwhile, Kemp noted that a similar transformer failure had affected Zuvotong and Blue Hill Colony after their 250 kVA transformer was damaged due to overloading. Power supply in those areas was restored within five to six days as a suitable standby transformer was available. He added that the Police Reserve and NAP camp transformers had failed earlier, but restoration had taken longer due to the absence of a standby 100 kVA unit.
The Executive Engineer further stressed the need for consumers to adopt smart meters and regulate electricity consumption to help prevent overloading and transformer failures. He said the department has been conducting awareness programmes and encouraging consumers to install smart meters as part of efforts to improve the reliability and stability of the power distribution system.