Mumbai: Consumers from Matunga, Dadar, Mahim and Bandra and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), including Thane, Navi Mumbai, Dombivli, Vasai and Palghar, were left sweltering on Tuesday morning after there was an hour-long breakdown in power supply, following the tripping of 400kV transmission lines of MahaTransco. The tripping caused a disruption in the power supply of Tata Power and Adani Electricity also. However, the power failure did not impact the functioning of Mumbai’s suburban trains.
Tuesday’s tripping hit 2,364MW of load and consumers had to sweat it out as humidity soared. As recently as February 27, 2022, there had been a major power breakdown and before that, on October 12, 2020, due to grid failure.
Incidentally, when the power outage occurred, Governor B S Koshyari was attending a function in the city.
According to MahaTransco’s preliminary report, sparking was observed at the isolator, which culminated in the operation of 400 kV Bus Bar, leading to interruption in power supply at 10.08am, which was fully restored, in phases, at 11.30am. The incoming 400kV Talegaon-Kalwa and Talegaon-Kharghar lines were overloaded and therefore, in order to control the load on these lines, a load-trimming scheme was operated to avoid total blackout. However, power supply at Sonkhar, Nerul, Dharavi and other parts were affected.
“The sparking on the isolator at Padghe could have been detected with the help of a thermal imaging camera well before the operation of the Bus Bar protection. Unfortunately, despite the availability of state-of-the-art diagnostic tools nowadays, there is no application of these for preventive maintenance. However, all the embedded generation of Tata Power’s hydro, gas and thermal and Adani Electricity’s Dahanu thermal were picked up to full capacity,” said the report. It further added that the loads in Mumbai, where daily power demand has surged to 3,800-3,900MW, was restored at 10.50am and loads in the MMR by 11.20am. The loads fed by the 400kV Padghe substation were restored by 11.30am.
Taking serious note of Tuesday’s outage, MahaTransco has served a show-cause notice to its Director (Operations) Anil Kolap, asking him to submit his reply in three days. “Today’s tripping has caused loss of revenue, immense inconvenience to consumers and tarnished the image of MahaTransco and the state energy department,” reads the show-cause notice to Kolap.
“You do not have any control on the system, which is a very serious matter and a clear default in performing your role and responsibilities as the Director (Operations). You are therefore directed to explain why serious action should not be taken against you. Your explanation must reach within three days from the receipt of the notice,” the notice demands.
Blame game between Tata Power & Adani Electricity
Adani Electricity said Tata Power’s Dharavi substation tripped due to the outages in the incoming MahaTransco transmission lines, resulting in power disruption in parts of suburban Mumbai. However, Tata Power claimed that Adani Electricity’s statement was misleading.
“As confirmed by MahaTransco in its statement, the outage happened due to a breakdown (bus trip) in their 400kV substation at Padghe. This substation supplies power to the Padghe-to-Pal 220kV high-pressure line and this was disrupted. This had a resultant impact on the Tata Power network. It is noteworthy that Tata Power today also ensured the running of its hydro, gas and thermal plants to the full capacity, to safeguard the city and against further load shedding,” said Tata Power.
However, Adani Electricity said in its second statement that Tata Power, in its own statement, had nowhere denied that the Tata Power Dharavi substation tripped. “Adani Electricity has only stated facts and once again reiterates that the Tata Power Dharavi substation tripped due to outages in the incoming MahaTransco transmission lines resulting in power supply disruptions in parts of suburban Mumbai. Adani Electricity team took quick actions to restore supply to its consumers within 40 minutes,” it added.
Water supply hit
A major glitch in the state electricity distribution centre at Padgha, Thane district, led to blackouts in several areas of Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Panvel, Kalyan, Dombivli, Palghar, Vasai-Virar, Ambarnath, Kulgaon, Badlapur and other areas on Tuesday. The power outage also hit the BMC’s water supply. Because of the electricity failure, around 25 pumps had to be shut, and hence, civic hydraulic department employees couldn’t lift water from Bhatsa lake. Because of the power failure at Pise Panjrapole, water supply was affected – 60 per cent of supply was affected in eastern suburbs and 75 per cent in western suburbs.
Deputy Hydraulic Engineer Sanjay Arte said, “The water cut was for almost five hours. We have around 25 big pumps that lift water. For lack of electricity, we couldn’t lift water from Bhatsa lake. After power was restored, we slowly started the pumps. Each pump takes around 20 minutes to fully start and therefore, water supply was affected.”
