Mumbai Hit By “Unprecedented” Power Failure

Mumbai power cut causes Monday morning misery for millions.

The grid failure struck Mumbai – India’s financial capital – at approximately 10 am local time, immediately disrupting the city’s central and western line train services.

As well as hitting the city centre, outages were reported in Thane, Navi Mumbai and other parts of the region.

Critical infrastructure such as the airport and stock exchange were unaffected, although hospitals were ordered to ensure they had enough fuel to power backup generators for at least eight hours in case of further interruptions.

Power to the train network and much of the city was restored within a couple of hours

A statement from Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST), one of the companies that supplies the city, pinned the blame on a central grid failure at Tata Power.

The electric supply is interrupted due to TATAs incoming electric supply failure.
Inconvenience is regretted.

— BEST Electricity (@myBESTElectric) October 12, 2020

While Maharashtra regional Energy Minister Nitin Raut said that a “technical glitch in Circuit 2 of the Kalva-Padghe powerhouse” was the cause of the outage. The 400 kV Circuit 1 transformer was undergoing maintenance.  

Mumbai-Thane-Kalyan power failure is being attended to.
Kalwa- padgha transmissions line got tripped,
hence Thane- Palghar, New Mumbai power is off. Consequently, cascading the power failure to Mumbai-Thane & Mumbai suburban city.
It will be restored in approximately an hour.

— Dr. Nitin Raut (@NitinRaut_INC) October 12, 2020

It is claimed multiple trips resulted in a 2,000 MW deficit in power across the Mumbai region. Another power provider, Adnai Electricity, picked up some of the slack by supplying around 385 MW to critical services.

“At 10:10 am, there were simultaneous substation tripping in MSETCL’s Kalwa, Kharghar, causing a huge dip in frequency in the Mumbai transmission system which led to tripping of the Mumbai power supply.

“Restoration work in is in progress to bring supply from the three Hydro units and Trombay units once the MSETCL transmission lines are connected. Inconvenience is regretted.”

– Statement from Tata Power

While power cuts are nothing new in India, they are rare in the major cities.