Chennai is bracing for power outages this week as the Tamil Nadu Generation and Distribution Corporation (TANGEDCO) undertakes essential maintenance work across the city.
Over 90 neighbourhoods across key suburban and residential pockets will experience planned power supply disruptions lasting up to five hours, disrupting daily routines and raising concerns about urban infrastructure resilience.On Thursday, May 29, over 40 locations across Chennai’s western and southwestern zones — including Kundrathur, Tiruverkadu, JJ Nagar, Avadi, and Pudhuthangal — will be affected. The scheduled outage is set between 9:00 AM and 2:00 PM, with power expected to resume sooner if maintenance is completed ahead of schedule. According to TANGEDCO officials, these outages are part of routine grid strengthening and substation upgrades to ensure long-term service reliability.
In Kundrathur, areas including Thatchar Street, Ponniamman Nagar, and Naveethar Street will go dark, while Tiruverkadu will see interruptions in Velappanchavadi and Madhiraavedu localities. JJ Nagar’s housing societies, apartment clusters like Golden Homes, and residential layouts near SBIOA School and Vinoth Apartments will also face the outage. In Avadi, key areas like Tirumalaivasan Nagar, Bharathi Nagar, and Ramakrishna Nagar are included in the maintenance schedule. Pudhuthangal and the Irumbuliyur stretch of GST Road are also listed for service disruption.
The outages are not confined to Thursday. On Wednesday, May 28, another widespread outage is planned for over 50 locations, targeting areas in Tambaram, Ambattur, and Tiruverkadu. Notable among them are densely populated zones like Camp Road, Chitlapakkam GST Road, Sanatorium, Rajakilpakkam, and Jaya Nagar. In Ambattur, residents on Church Road, Vasantha Street, and Srinivasan Street will face temporary disconnection.Officials clarified that these planned outages are critical to preventing larger and unscheduled failures. However, citizens have long raised concerns about the lack of real-time public communication and insufficient investment in resilient energy systems. Frequent disruptions — even planned ones — can severely impact small businesses, students, and vulnerable residents, especially in areas where alternate power sources are unavailable.
This underscores the need for Chennai to accelerate the shift toward sustainable urban energy infrastructure. Urban planners and climate policy advocates have repeatedly emphasised the urgency of transitioning from legacy grids to smart, resilient, and decentralised renewable energy systems — especially in fast-growing metro cities like Chennai. Rooftop solar systems, community-based microgrids, and battery storage units could not only reduce dependency on large-scale transmission infrastructure but also align with Tamil Nadu’s broader climate goals.Experts also point out that equitable energy access must be prioritised. Power disruptions disproportionately affect low-income settlements, where inverters and backup systems are luxuries. Building inclusive infrastructure that withstands the pressure of urban growth while ensuring uninterrupted access is not just a logistical challenge — it’s a social and environmental imperative.
While maintenance works are unavoidable, the increasing frequency of such outages calls for a long-term urban energy roadmap that favours green technologies, citizen preparedness, and equitable access. Cities like Chennai must move beyond reactive repair schedules and towards proactive, climate-resilient planning that safeguards both infrastructure and livelihoods.
TANGEDCO has appealed to residents to bear with the temporary inconvenience and promised updates if the power is restored earlier than scheduled.
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