On Monday 12/10/20, Mumbai faced an unexpected grid failure at an unprecedented scale for the region, leaving the entire MMR region without power. Many hospitals and businesses were told to and had to, rely on emergency power from Diesel generators. In this post, we’ll provide insight into what happened, how likely these events are to happen and why you need a backup Diesel generator for your business whether you’re in Mumbai or anywhere else in the world.
Tata Power Statement
Tata Power is India’s largest integrated power company, founded in 18th September 1919. They operate across the world, from South Africa to Singapore. They are based in and are the main electricity supplier of Mumbai. They released this statement to summarise the current situation in Mumbai:
“Based on the preliminary assessment of the situation, Tata Power would like to inform that today many parts of Mumbai experienced an unforeseen electricity failure starting at 10 am in the morning due to tripping of MSETCL’s 400 KV transmission system at Kalwa which supplies to Mumbai and adjoining areas. MSETCLs 400kV Pune-Kalwa line was under forced shutdown since yesterday due to R-Y phase fault.
It is understood that MSETCL had taken emergency shutdown for 400 KV Kalwa- Padghe line -1 at 6.54hrs today morning to attend fault and was expected to be revived by 09:30hr, but could not revive it.
As understood, at 09:58hrs 400kV Kalwa-Padghe-2 carrying 633 MW tripped. The flow on Pune-Kharghar rose upto 900MW and tripped at 10:00hrs resulting in load drop in Mumbai system.
Mumbai’s islanding system that saves the city from major power outages was separated, however it could not hold as additional 900MW load dropped at 10:05hrs.
Tata Power swiftly began restoration work to bring back supply from the 3 Hydro units and Trombay gas and coal units as soon as the MSETCL transmission lines were connected. Tata Power started restoring supply to its consumers progressively from 12 noon onwards.
Tata Power regrets the inconvenience caused to its consumers due to this unforeseen event in power failure due to the transmission system failure leading to the cascading impact to all downstream suppliers of electricity including Tata Power, BEST and its consumers.”
What this outage meant for Mumbai
Simply put, in this technological age, a power outage can quickly become a serious issue without redundancies in place. Citizens can no longer light up their homes and businesses can’t refrigerate, use lights or in many cases allow customers to use their tills. Even worse in this current pandemic, healthcare without power will quickly struggle to give patients the care they deserve.
You’d think a power outage would be a disaster for Mumbai with this knowledge, but thanks to backup Diesel generators this has proven to be a relatively minor hiccup. The Mumbai municipal commissioner asked all hospitals to keep Diesel generator sets on hand, and the crisis was averted.
Why You Need Diesel Generators
According to multiple sources, an average of around 10 power outages affects companies every year. This number is exponentially higher in South Asia. Power outages are devastating to construction, commercial and healthcare fields in this technological age. However, a Diesel generator is a reliable, dependable source of power that is easily deployed, economic and efficient.
With CPS, you can trust our team of experts to provide a quality, UK-manufactured generator to meet your energy needs. We export globally: open-set, containerised, silent and many more kinds of generators to provide you with the bespoke power solution your company needs. For quality Diesel generators and excellent after-sales service, trust CPS today.