CH NEWS, YADGIR
Transformers are reportedly getting damaged repeatedly due to overloading, poor maintenance and other technical issues, leaving farmers struggling to provide water to standing crops.
Last year, thousands of transformers were damaged in Yadgir and Surpur divisions of GESC due to river flooding and backwater following excessive rainfall. During 2025-26, a total of 2,801 transformers were damaged in the two divisions. This year, 1,675 transformers were brought for repairs between April and August, including 1,172 failures during the three monsoon months of June to August. Thousands of farmers depend on borewells, the Krishna and Bhima rivers, canals and streams for irrigation. With the scheduled seven-hour three-phase power supply itself being inadequate, farmers are also worried that their transformers could fail at any time, further affecting irrigation.
GESC engineers attributed the frequent failures to load imbalance across transformer phases, inadequate periodic maintenance, loose cable connections, defective earthing, tree branches touching power lines, unauthorised connections and overloading. A transformer can generally be repaired four or five times. Repeated repairs beyond this limit can reduce its load-bearing capacity, engineers said.
Staff shortage adds to problem
The number of transformer failures has increased compared to last year. In June 2025, 350 transformers were damaged in Yadgir and Surpur divisions, compared with 430 in June this year. Similarly, failures increased from 355 in July last year to 411 this July. In August, the figure rose from 257 in 2025 to 316 this year.
A GESC engineer said the groundwater situation has not deteriorated severely despite the dry spell, as the region received good rainfall last year. However, the number of agricultural pump-set connections on individual transformers has increased significantly. Earlier, five or six agricultural pump sets were connected to a transformer. Now, the number has crossed double digits in some places. With the lack of rainfall, it is difficult to prevent farmers from seeking additional pump-set connections. We are managing the situation despite repeated transformer failures,” the engineer said.
