State power company alleges delay at Tata Power end, which refutes allegation
Customers at a medical shop during a power outage at Walkeshwar Road, on Sunday. Pic/Bipin Kokate
Maharashtra power transmission company has alleged that Tata Power could have averted an outage on Sunday by mitigating the shortage based on an early warning, an allegation denied by the private firm. TATA Power Company Ltd told mid-day the information about increasing the capacity came late, at 9.30 am.
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The Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company Ltd (MSETCL) said Tata Power failed to promptly increase power generation to mitigate shortage caused by the tripping of MSETCL lines that bring supply from outside, despite early warning by the Maharashtra State Load Despatch Centre (MSLDC), which is part of the state transmission firm.
Terming the allegation baseless, Tata Power said there was no delay in ramping up generation when told about the grid collapse. It added that the state firm didn’t use a mechanism that gets activated in just 15 seconds to inform generation companies to ramp up their production in an emergency such as this.
A staffer checks the medicine stock manually instead of on the computer due to the power cut, at a medical shop, on Sunday. Pic/Bipin Kokate
The MSETCL’s observation is part of its media statement and a preliminary report it submitted to the Energy Department. The state government has ordered an inquiry into the outage that happened on Sunday morning. It affected the entire island city, parts of eastern and western suburbs. The supply was restored in 70 minutes.
Citing reasons, the MSETCL said the 220 kV Sonkhar-Trombay and Chembur-Trombay lines were shut from February 4 and 5 for Metro 2B work. Besides, the Salsette-Trombay-1 line with 220 kV capacity was shut from 11 pm on February 26. Due to these changes, the Nerul-Chembur and Sonkhar-Trombay power lines were connected, and to separate them, the power supply was shut on Sunday, February 27, from 7 am. Around 8.44 am, the Mulund-Trombay line tripped because of a technical snag, it added.
The MSLDC asked Tata Thermal Power and Tata Hydro Electricity Power Company to increase their capacity around 9.00 am, but Tata Power’s generation centre demanded an email in order to increase its capacity, the MSETCL said. “Had Tata Power increased power generation with immediate effect, this situation would have been averted,” said MSETCL.
Problems compounded when at 09.49 am, a fire broke out on the premises of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre. As a result, the 220 kV-capacity Kalva-Trombay line tripped because of some technical problem which, in turn, affected the Trombay-Salsette grid, the statement said. The Trombay-Salsette line was affected because of this. Due to overload, the lines tripped and the electricity generation set also stopped working. This resulted in a technical problem and the power supply in south Mumbai (Colaba, Mahalaxmi and Dadar) was affected, it added.
Informed at 9.30 am: Tata Power
Tata Power, in a statement to mid-day on Tuesday, said the first information came to them at 9.30 am, not at 9 am as claimed by the MSETCL, adding that the allegations are completely unfounded.
“Under the new DSM (Deviation Settlement Mechanism) regime, MSLDC has the provision to enter into the system the additional generation required at any time vide a mechanism known as VSE (Virtual State Entity), which takes only 15 seconds to activate. According to phone recordings available at both ends and witnessed by senior officials present at Trombay, the first communication from MSLDC to pick up generation happened at 0930 hours. We acted quickly to address the situation that had arisen as a result of MSETCL Grid tripping,” said a Tata Power spokesperson.
Tata Power President (transmission and distribution) Sanjay Banga said a detailed investigation of this outage is underway. “We are coordinating with all agencies, including the MSLDC, to find out the exact reason and see how we can avoid such incidents in the future,” he said, adding that his team restored the power supply within one hour, stepped up hydro generation to full capacity and avoided a much larger damage.
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