Mumbai Power Cut: Tata Power issues statement explaining reason behind massive outage

After Mumbai came to a standstill after a grid failure caused a major power outage across the metropolis on Monday, Tata Power released a statement explaining the reasons for the power outage and expressed regret for the inconvenience caused to the customers. 

The company stated that the electricity failure started at 10 am in the morning due to tripping of MSETCL’s 400 KV transmission system at Kalwa which supplies to Mumbai and adjoining areas.

“Based on the preliminary assessment of the situation, Tata Power would like to inform that today many parts of Mumbai experienced an unforeseen electricity failure starting at 10 am in the morning due to tripping of MSETCL’s 400 KV transmission system at Kalwa which supplies to Mumbai and adjoining areas. MSETCLs 400kV Pune-Kalwa line was under forced shutdown since yesterday due to R-Y phase fault. It is understood that MSETCL had taken emergency shutdown for 400 KV Kalwa- Padghe line -1 at 6.54hrs today morning to attend fault and was expected to be revived by 09:30hr, but could not revive it," the statement read.

The statement added that the company swiftly began restoration work to bring back supply from the 3 Hydro units and Trombay gas and coal units as soon as the MSETCL transmission lines were connected. Further reasoning out the power outage, the company stated that Mumbai’s islanding system that saves the city from major power outages was separated and it could not hold an additional 900MW load.

"The flow on Pune-Kharghar rose upto 900MW and tripped at 10:00hrs resulting in load drop in Mumbai system. Mumbai’s islanding system that saves the city from major power outages was separated, however it could not hold as additional 900MW load dropped at 10:05hrs. Tata Power swiftly began restoration work to bring back supply from the 3 Hydro units and Trombay gas and coal units as soon as the MSETCL transmission lines were connected. Tata Power started restoring supply to its consumers progressively from 12 noon onwards," the statement added.

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Large parts of Mumbai face major power outage

Large parts of the financial capital reported a major power outage on Monday morning due to the power grid failure. In a tweet, Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) said, The electric supply is interrupted due to TATAs incoming electric supply failure.

Suburban local train services, operating only for essential workers at present, were affected from 10:05 am, according to sources. Multiple operators, including the state-run BEST, Adani Electricity and Tata Power supply power to the city. A Power Grid Failure usually occurs when the frequency reaches its minimum or maximum level and there is a risk of failure of transmission lines. Thus, when there is a breakdown of transmission lines due to over or under frequency it can be called as a grid failure.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday took serious cognisance of the power outage in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) and ordered an immediate probe into it. State Energy Minister Nitin Raut also said the reasons behind the technical snag that caused a power failure in parts of the MMR will be probed once the electricity supply is restored.

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