Shutdown information
Planned & unplanned power cuts
Two different things get called a "power cut" in Tamil Nadu. Here's how to tell them apart and what to do about each.
Planned Scheduled maintenance
TNPDCL publishes these in advance so line staff can safely work on transformers, feeders, or poles. They usually run for a fixed window (commonly a few hours on a weekday morning) and cover a defined set of streets or a substation's full load.
Fault Unplanned outage
No notice, because none was possible: a blown fuse, a snapped line after a storm, an overloaded transformer tripping, or an animal contacting equipment. These get fixed on a call-out basis — reporting it promptly is what gets a lineman sent out.
Not sure which one you're facing? If your neighbours a few streets over still have power and you had no advance notice, it's almost always a fault — call 1912 rather than waiting for a "scheduled" cut to end.