Mumbai: Major power crisis averted!

A major power cut in the city was prevented on Wednesday thanks to good coordination and prompt action by electricity agencies, and utilities that had faced major outages in the past over transmission hurdles. The incident occurred when a 400kV Talegaon-Kharghar line carrying 625MW power from outside, tripped due to a fire.

The line was charged again at 2.44 pm but it tripped again, sounding an alarm for the Maharashtra State Load Despatch Centre (MSLDC) that monitors and regulates transmission. Mumbai needed 3,663MW at the time of tripping. The suburban area of Adani Electricity recorded the highest demand of the season on Wednesday.

In the past incidents, lenient coordination between the utilities and agencies was reported. A blame game played out between them and Wednesday was no different. People at Adani Electricity said Tata Power generated 150MW less when the city wanted even more supply. Tata said the shortage was acute because Adani's 250MW plant in Dahanu was shut.

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Crisis averted

According to a report that MSLDC shared with the government's energy department, the city's embedded generation (production of electricity from power stations connected to a Distribution Network) was picked up, to avoid any further grid disturbance and power cut of around 500MW. However, for some time, the eastern suburbs of Bhandup and Mulund, Kalwa and parts of Navi Mumbai together faced a deficit of 347MW through manual load shedding for technical reasons.

A shopkeeper uses a mobile phone torch and candles at Dadar TT during a power cut on October 12, 2020. File pic

Tata Power's hydro, gas-based and coal-fired thermal projects increased generation quickly, said the report, adding that a red alert was issued through ‘MSLDC Alert Messaging System' to all stakeholders. Mumbai was supplied with 3,782MW by all utilities, at certain point of time when the issue was being sorted.

During the crisis, loading on other 400kV lines increased. If loading was not reduced, there were chances of load shedding to the tune of 500 MW in Navi Mumbai (Kharghar, Sonkhar, Nerul, Mahape) and non-critical loads in Mumbai (Dharavi, Chembur), said the report.

Mumbai's demand was to the tune of 3,600 MW at 1.55pm and it was an increasing trend. Also, there was less margin available in the internal generation, because Adani Power's Dahanu Unit-2 (250 MW) was out from 7 am on Wednesday. At Tata's Trombay, its Unit-5 was operating at reduced capacity because of low vacuum and sea water temperature above 330C.

Embedded generation restored

The Talegaon-Kharghar line was restored at 4.30 pm. Out of 347 MW (deficit), around 175 MW load was restored partially from 3.45pm by loading on remaining lines. Mumbai's embedded generation was restored to normal. Adani Electricity spokesperson said its consumers did not have any power cuts and it actually served the season's highest peak network demand of 2,042 MW on Wednesday.

Tata Power said it played a crucial role in ensuring uninterrupted power supply to Mumbai, which recorded its all-time high peak demand of 3,893 MW. "One of the 250 MW generation plants of another utility (read Adani) supplying to Mumbai was not available leading to acute shortage. Despite this challenge, Tata Power stepped up and used its full available thermal and hydro generation to meet the city's peak demand. The company also worked closely with MSLDC to handle transmission corridor constraints and averted possible load shedding in Mumbai."

Battle of statements

Adani released yet another statement in response to Tata's. It said the incident showed once again how the other transmission utility of Mumbai (Tata) has over the years jeopardized reliability of supply by deliberately delayinplayg and neglecting Mumbai's Transmission capacity enhancements to protect its own embedded generation. "It is unfortunate that out of its own generation of 500 MW only 350 MW was operational yet they chose to blame other utilities," it stated further.

Tata Power also released another statement. "The other utility is making baseless claims regarding our generation figures. SLDC data can confirm that Tata Power generated approx. 1250 MW (800 MW Hydro and 450 MW Thermal) to help meet the power demand gap. It should be understood that all consumers were put to peril by the other utility by just having 250MW generation and this utility is depending on help from Tata Power to bail them out by citing baseless allegations during this critical summer season when the demand is touching an all time high." (SIC)

3,782
Power in MW supplied to city in crisis

3,663mw
Electricity Mumbai needed when the line tripped