In order to avoid a total grid failure in Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR), following the failure of Talegaon Kharghar 400KV line, a rotational load shedding was imposed on emergency basis across Navi Mumbai on Thursday.
A similar grid failure was observed in 2020 in MMR after a line failure due to overload on the remaining power grid. Navi Mumbaikars, hence, had to face close to an hour-long power cuts.
“Due to the issue in the transmission line, Vashi circle had a shortfall of 150MW power. In order to distribute the shortage among every node, all substations took a rotational load shedding of close to one hour on Thursday,” an official from Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL), said.
Kharghar, Nerul, Belapur, Koparkhairane, Bonkode, Mahape and Turbhe faced power cuts.
On Thursday, at around 6.20am, there was a technical issue in the Talegaon-Kharghar line. “The fault was found at Talegaon. Till 10am, there were no issues but after that, as the commercial institutions started their machineries, and due to the increase in heat, the demand for power increased,” the officer said.
The increased demand for power while there was a failure in Talegaon-Kharghar line led to increased load on the State Load Despatch Centre (SLDC), Kalwa. To avoid a total blackout, SLDC decided for an emergency load shedding that was communicated to the MSEDCL to implement.
“During the power outage of 2020, a committee was set up that decided that when a line fails, a distress load shedding should be immediately started to avoid load on other lines resulting in complete failure of other lines as well. Following the same instructions, the load shedding was implemented in Navi Mumbai in rotation. While some places had an outage of 30 minutes, some others had it for 45 minutes,” the MSETCL officer added.
The technical failure in the Talegaon-Kharghar line was rectified by Thursday evening.
“The heat is unbearable. Sitting inside home feels like a gas chamber. Along with this, when there is a load shedding, it’s a terrible experience. Am glad it lasted for not more than an hour,” Srishti Shinde, a Kharghar resident, said.