Tata Power to restore electricity by tonight: All you need to know about Mumbai's blackout

Mumbai: Several parts of south and central Mumbai faced massive power outages today after a unit of TataPower’s Trombay plant, which primarily supplies to the city, tripped.

Tata Power has said that it will restore power in the city by tonight.

“Partial load has been restored through hydro stationsand the company has activated the initialisation activities ofits cold standby unit 6 which runs on oil. Units are expectedto be fully restored and power is expected to be normalisedfully by late night today,” a TPC statement said this evening.

The power outage started at about 9.45 am. The tripping forced the company to switch off several feeders, it said.

What was the issue with Tata Power?

Tata Power said the tripping of a unit at one of its power stations in Mumbai reduced the supply at 9.45 am to various central and suburban parts of the city.

“Tata Power would like to inform that today at 0945 hrs the power supply was affected due to tripping of unit 5 of Trombay power station. This tripping has resulted in load reduction in Parel, Mahalaxmi, Dharavi, Chembur and Grant Road areas of south Mumbai. This impacted controlling loading on the 220Kv Kharghar-Nerul-Sonkar-Trombay tie line which supplies power to the city,” the power company said in a statement.

Who is affected the most?

The affected consumers are mostly of the state-run BEST as no private player is distributing power in the island city. The BEST (Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport), which gets its power supply from Tata Power, has around 10 lakh consumers in the city.

There were power cuts in areasincluding Parel, Mahalaxmi, Dharavi, and Chembur.

What BEST said following the power outage:

Meanwhile, BEST in a statement said following the tripping at Tata Power unit at 0940 hrs, it has been facing transmission constraints to bring power from outside to the city.

“Due to this, rotational load shedding has been imposed by Tata Power in Dadar, Mahim, Dharavi, Sion, Prabhadevi, Parel, Sewree, Byculla, Chinchpokli, Girgaon, Mumbai Central and part of Hutatma Chowk, Ballard Pier, Nariman Point and area around Metro Cinema,” BEST said.

What Reliance Infrastructure said:

Meanwhile, Reliance Infrastructure, which supplies power in the western suburbs of the city, said, “Due to tripping at Tata Power unit no. 5 of 500mw, there is transmission constraint on its transmission corridor. Due to this, rotational load shedding has been imposed by Tata Power in Chembur, Santacruz, Ghatkopar, Bandra, Kurla, Tilaknagar, Vikhroli, Saki Naka and Juhu.”

“We regret the inconvenience and are constantly in touch with Tata Power for restoring normalcy at the earliest,” Reliance Infrastructure added.

WhatAnand Mahindra said:

Disturbed over power cuts across Mumbai, Mahindra Group Chairman Anand Mahindra today warned that this could be “a threat to the India story”.

Mahindra signalled that power cuts could be due shortage of coal. In a tweet, Mahindra said: “Dark office in Mumbai. Lights out in the whole area. The coal crisis is beginning to literally show its dark side. A threat to the India story.”

Mahindra’s corporate office is situated in South Mumbai’s Worli area.