Mumbaikars may face power outages as little action on implementation of slew of recommendations by various panels

Despite recommendations of at least three committees for the urgent need to strengthen Mumbai’s transmission network, the implementation of a slew of transmission projects has been marred by procedural and technical delays, dominance of vested interests, professional rivalry between private sector and public sector companies and lack of coordination among different agencies. A senior officer from the state energy department admitted that the Mumbaikars may continue to face power outages till then.

Embedded generations of Mumbai are Old & have served their useful life (30-40 years old) and now reliability cannot be ensured with these plants. With rising demand Embedded generation cannot meet the reliable power supply needs of Mumbaikars as demand is far more than capacity, also new generation cannot be added.

The technical committee appointed by the state government after the October 12, 2020 power failure in Mumbai following grid disturbances had stressed the need for coordination between the state load dispatch centre and utilities and implementation of an action plan to meet such emergencies and transmission constraints on a war footing.

The Action Taken Report prepared by the state run power companies after the October 12, 2020 power outage in Mumbai had pitched for the increase in the installed generation capacity or embedded generation in Mumbai, establishment of a task force to apply modern technology and trends in the electricity city and its impact on Mumbai electricity network, and increased transmission capacity to evacuate more power into the city and step up maintenance of equipment. However, the implementation has yet to take off at full swing.

Further, the Central Electricity Authority in its report said, ‘’Since, there is likelihood that Mumbai generation is to come down further by 2023-24, so under that condition with increased power demand of Mumbai area, the existing 220 kV network of Mumbai would be further stressed. So as to cope up with the deficit in the embedded generation, Mumbai area has to depend mainly on the external source to meet its requirement of supply of power.’’ It further added that in view of the difficulty faced for implementing EHV (extra high voltage) overhead lines inside Mumbai, the Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company (MahaTransco) can undertake the underground feeding lines to feed the Mumbai areas to enhance the reliability of the system.

Besides, CEA had suggested that mitigation measures to limit the fault current need to be evolved along with the proposal for augmentation in the transmission system.