Several parts of Mumbai and Mumbai Metropolitan Region witnessed massive power outage on Monday, resulting in suspension of suburban train services.
The reason for power outage is cited as multiple trippings of power lines supplying power to Mumbai and MMR. It has been reported that nearly 360 MW of power supply has been affected.
In a tweet, Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) said, "the electric supply is interrupted due to TATAs incoming electric supply failure."
Tata Power, in a statement said: “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 Mumbai power supply. Restoration work in is in progress to bring supply from the 3 Hydro units and Trombay units once the MSETCL transmission lines are connected. Inconvenience is regretted.”
Western Railway, on Twitter, said that services between Churchgate and Borivili have been suspended due to "grid failure of Tata Power Company". The services will resume as soon as traction power supply is restored, it said.
Multiple operators, including the State-run BEST, Adani Electricity and Tata Power supply power to the city.
Supply to be restored within an hour, says Power Minister
In a statement, Adani Electricity said that there is a major power grid failure due to which supply is affected in most areas of Mumbai. "As per grid safety protocols, Adani Power System has been able to sustain and islanded," it said.
"Adani Electricity Mumbai Limited is currently supplying to critical services in Mumbai Around 385MW through AEML Dahanu generation. Our teams are working to restore the supply in the affected areas at the earliest. We regret the inconvenience caused," it added.
Maharashtra Power Minister Nitin RAut said the power will be restored within an hour. "Circuit 1 of 400KV GIS centre at Kalva-Padgha of MahaTransco was under repair and maintenance and the load was on Circuit 2. A technical problem in circuit 2 led to problems in power supply to Mumbai and Thane," he explained.
Power outages were reported from suburbs like Thane, Panvel, Dombivili and Kalyan as well.
BSE and NSE, the oldest and the largest bourses, respectively, which are based in the city, also reported power outages, but added that their operations are continuing normally.
A spokesperson of the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport said operations are normal.
Bombay High Court also faced power outage.
Municipal Commissioner of Mumbai I S Chahal has asked officers to get enough supply of diesel for at least eight hours so that there is no power failures in hospitals especially intensive care unit (ICUs) and asked disaster control personnel to keep handy a mobile diesel generator set as a backup if the power disruption lasts beyond two hours.
The power outage, which is a rare occurring in the city, also comes at a time when many people across critical sectors such as financial services and information technology continue to work from home which typically do not have backups.
