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The Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) has spent a whopping ₹104 crore on the repair of electrical infrastructure damaged due to heavy rains and wind between Financial Year (FY) 2019 – 20 to FY 2023 – 24.
During this period, a total of 42,384 electric poles and 8,017 transformers have been damaged due to weather conditions. In FY 2024, which has just begun,1,235 poles and 143 transformers have been damaged due to rainfall and winds.
Most of the damage during the ongoing financial year occurred in the last few days itself. While 305 electric poles and 57 transformers were damaged after the rainfall on May 3 (amounting to loss of ₹1.18 crore), the rainfall on May 6, damaged 258 electric poles (147 in Bengaluru Urban), and 44 transformers (36 in Bengaluru Urban) (amounting to ₹86.07 lakh). Overall, ₹3.03 crore has been spent on repairing damaged infrastructure in the current year.
When asked about the reason for these damages, a senior official from Bescom told The Hindu, “The main culprit for these damages are old trees. Our electric poles are manufactured to withstand up to 250 kg. After eight or nine months of little to no rain, this sudden bout of winds and rains led to the fall of some huge trees, the weight of which was beyond the safe mechanical strength of our infrastructure.”
He also said that to minimise future damage, the broken poles are replaced with RC electrical poles and that plans were in place to convert conductors into covered conductors and strengthen electricity lines.
While electrical infrastructure has been set up in the city over a period of 100 years, Bescom officials said that they were constantly in the process of replacing and upgrading them according to requirements.
“We have brought in a lot of technological advancements into our electrical network now and we are also updating the existing infrastructure with these technological components. Apart from traditional conductors, poles and transformers, we now have Ring Main Units (RMU), Distributed Antenna System (DAS) etc. On an average, every year, we spend around ₹2,000 crore on electrical infrastructure development,” he said.
However, the Aerial Bunched Cables (ABC) and underground (UG) cable projects which are expected to cut down on such damage while also preventing electrical accidents, are moving at a slow pace. According to a source, around 40% of ABC has been completed while the progress is at 50 – 60% when it comes to UG cables.
Experts say that while natural causes often lead to electrical infrastructure damage, there are some steps that can be taken by the power utility to avoid it. “When Bescom takes up pruning of trees, if the branches are not cut in exact angles, then when there are winds, they topple on the poles. They should have scientific guidance while pruning trees,” said M.G. Prabhakar, former member of the advisory committee, Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission.
He added, “There is also the perennial problem of maintenance not happening regularly. When they already know that heavy rains and winds are unavoidable, they do not take enough precautions to minimise damages on those days.”
Monsoon preparedness
Bescom has begun its annual pre-monsoon maintenance from February itself, according to officials. “We usually hire people on a contract basis for this work. They conduct maintenance of lines as well as distribution transformers. They also look after safety and other small repairs and take up work like pruning trees. We have also set up a contingency fund so that when immediate work has to be taken up in monsoon, the circle offices can immediately use it instead of waiting for corporate approval,” a senior official said.
