For more than three hours, power is out in some areas of Mumbai, Thane, and Navi Mumbai.

26 Apr 2023

Many pockets in the Mumbai megapolis went without power for over three hours on Thursday afternoon due to load shedding carried out to save the power grid from a complete collapse after the tripping of a transmission line.

Parts of Bhandup and Mulund within the civic limits of Mumbai, neighboring Thane city, and pockets of Navi Mumbai had to face power cuts following the tripping of the 400 kV Talegaon-Kharghar line, which is one of the most critical line feeding power to both the metropolitan region and Mumbai, authorities said.

In a statement, the Maharashtra State Transmission Company said at 1355 hrs, the line tripped due to a fire beneath the line. At 1444 hrs, a trial was taken, but the line tripped again leading to fears of wider damage as the energy demand in Mumbai was at record high levels amid the afternoon heat.

The power demand in Mumbai, which gets power from the wider grid but enjoys an islanding mechanism wherein it is protected from any load shedding, was at 3,600 MW at 1355 hrs and increasing, the statement said

The state load dispatch centre carried out a manual load shedding in the MMR region to maintain the grid, and asked Tata Power Company to step in with additional power, the statement said, putting the overall quantum of load shed at 347 MW.

In a statement, TPC said it used its full available thermal and hydro-power generation to meet the city's power requirements and helped avert possible load shedding in Mumbai, which recorded its all-time high peak demand of 3,893 MW on Wednesday.

The Mahatransco statement said at 1615 hrs, the fire which had led to the tripping of the line had been brought under control and the transmission line was taken into service, leading to the restoration of power for the consumers.

In the recent past, there have been at least two instances of complete power collapse in the financial capital for a long time, including the incident on October 12, 2020, which led to some parts being without power for over 12 hours and a similar one on February 27 this year which was for a shorter period of time. The past incidents had revealed chinks in coordination, leading to a blame game between agencies