The entire CESC area was plunged into darkness on Thursday evening after a fault in the overhead line near Chakmir in South 24 Parganas. As a cascading effect, all power generating units at Titagarh, Southern and New Cossipore generating stations and unit III of the Budge Budge generating station stopped generation one after another.
Sources said, “The sudden shutdown of these units created a shortfall of over 700 MW in the supply side. Almost the entire CESC area was plunged into load shedding. There was no power supply in the Writers’ Buildings, the Kolkata police headquarters at Lalbazar and in other vital installations for few minutes. The Metro Rail services were also affected.” CESC’s own normal generation capacity was about 1200 MW. Power also went off at the Calcutta Club where governor M.K. Narayanan was participating in a programme. According to a CESC official, at around 6.09 pm, an external object fell on the lines between Budge Budge and Majherhat near Chakmir and immediately the entire system got tripped.
“Our technical officials were pressed in to fix the snag. At around 7.30 pm, the generating units at Titagarh and New Cossipore resumed generation. We are expecting that all the units will come by 9 pm,” the official informed.
State power secretary G. D. Gautama said that the power position in the CESC area was expected to be normal by 9.25 pm.