Power supply in many parts of the state capital was erratic from 8am to4pm on Tuesday due to replacement of equipment in unit No.1 of the Hatia grid.

The affected areas were Radium Road, Kutchery, Deputy Para, Deendayal Nagar, DC’s office, Morabadi, Club Road, Sujata Chowk, Pey Pey Compound, Main Road, Line Tank Road, Jail Mor, Hazam, Brambey, Ratu, Kanke, Harmu and Argora.

Residents from a number of localities said they did not have power for more than four hours of the eight-hour period of repairs.

“The power was going after an interval of one hour and it was a major hassle,” said Manju Dei, a homemaker from Harmu. “During the afternoon I use the washing machine but I had problems today as I had to wait for the power that kept going off.”

Divya Devi, a homemaker from Kanke Road, said she was prepared. “The electricity company had given prior information about interruption and as I noticed a small news item in a vernacular daily, I started the water-pump pump motor early in the morning and stored water. Once water got filled in the tank I became at ease as we usually don’t need a lot of electricity for other uses during the winter season,” she said.

Prabhat Kumar, superintending engineer of Jharkhand Vidyut Bitran Nigam Limited, admitted the interruption and said the city had a shortfall of around 80MW of power.

“Around 300 MW power is supplied in the city daily. Today only 220MW could be supplied to equipment replacement work. Thus people suffered to some extent though we had made arrangements to supply power on load-shedding basis (planned power outages in a locality),” Kumar said.

Asked what equipment was replaced, he said: “Insulator, isolator, bus bar and switch.”

Bus bar is a metallic strip or bar, typically housed inside switchgear, panel boards, and bus-way enclosures for local high-current power distribution, a JVBNL worker explained. The isolator is a manually operated mechanical switch which separates a part of the electrical power. An electrical insulator is a material whose internal electric charges do not flow freely. A switch controls the openness or closed-ness of an electrical circuit.

Another JVVNL official said during the shutdown many other works were also done to ensure proper supply of power in future: “Work of erecting electric poles and cutting of branches of trees touching power lines was also done. It will help ensure regular power supply during the rainy season and stormy weather.”