Maharashtra Energy Minister Nitin Raut on Wednesday said that foul play or sabotage cannot be ruled out in connection with the power outage in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Thane on October 12.
A rare citywide power outage was seen in Mumbai on Monday, halting suburban train services, trapping people in lifts and disrupting work from home adopted by millions during the ongoing pandemic.
"Possibility of foul play/sabotage cannot be denied in the power outage incident of Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai on Monday," Raut's tweet read.
Raut said the trouble on Monday emanated from Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company (MSETCL) facilities during a planned maintenance work.
Tata Power, which is into both generation and distribution, attributed the outage to a simultaneous substation tripping at 1010 hrs at state-run transmission company MSETCL's two substations in the suburbs of Kalwa and Kharghar (Navi Mumbai).
Power outages were reported from suburbs like Thane, Panvel, Dombivili and Kalyan as well, along with those in the island city and the suburbs.
Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray has ordered a probe into the incident and also chaired a high- level meeting which was attended by the chief secretary and other officials.
Raut said maintenance work was on in MSETCL's 400 kv Kalwa-Padgha line when the technical fault happened in circuit number 2, which was taking the entire load at the time as circuit 1 was shut.
MSETCL is responsible for getting power till the Kalwa substation from generating stations across the state, from where distribution companies like Tata Power and Adani Electricity take it to the consumers, the source said.
As part of islanding system, a thermal-based power plant each of Adani at Dahanu and Tata Power (Trombay) are expected to supply power.
Adani Electricity Mumbai (AEML) distribution system operated islanding facility successfully and continued successfully power supply to vital installations with the help of Dahanu Thermal Power Station (DTPS).
(With agencies)
