A day after large parts of Mumbai suffered an unprecedented power outage, the Maharashtra Cabinet ordered an inquiry on Wednesday.
The inquiry report will have to be submitted within a week.
A 500MW Tata Power unit at Trombay tripped on Tuesday morning, leading to power cut in several residential and commercial areas of Mumbai till late in the night. Electricity was finally restored at 9 p.m.
“We welcome any sort of inquiry. We are ready to extend all possible help to the committee,” Anil Sardana, CEO and MD, Tata Power, said at a press conference here.
Mr. Sardana blamed overloaded transmission lines for the outage. “Power was available in neighbouring areas. We have no answer to why no transmission took place. Further investigation will reveal the details.”
Tata Power, meanwhile, pushed its long-pending project to convert Unit 6 at the Trombay Power Plant from oil and gas to coal. “The city must have increased power generation,” said Mr. Sardana.
“Power produced at this unit using oil costs Rs. 13 per unit and it can be brought down to Rs. 4 if we switch to coal.”
While the proposal has received environmental clearance, political consensus has not been reached.
Shiv Sena opposes the conversion to coal citing increasing pollution in Mumbai.
Following Tuesday’s incident, Tata Power initialised its Unit 6. Power generation in this unit will continue till Unit 5, which tripped on Tuesday, becomes fully functional.
Tata Power and BEST are likely to lock horns over the pricing of electricity generated from Unit 6. O.P. Gupta, General Manager, Bombay Electric Supply and Transport (BEST), ruled out paying Rs. 13 per unit. “Why should our customers pay so much for someone’s mistake? We will oppose it in the MERC [Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission],” he said.
