The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) has taken serious note of the disruption of power supply on November 18 and 21 in Mumbai’s suburbs and constituted an inquiry.
The grid disruption led to a blackout in much of the area on these days. MERC has appointed a committee headed by S A Khaparde, professor at the Indian Institutue of Technology here, to examine and report within a month. It is to also recommend on measures to upgrade the transmission and distribution systems in this city and the suburbs.
An MERC official told Business Standard the disruptions took place mainly due to some technical snags in the Tata Power transmission network. Apart from Tata Power, consumers of Mumbai and its suburbs get supply from Reliance Infrastructure and from BrihanMumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST).
Mumbai’s power remains unaffected by an disruption in the supply to the rest of Maharashtra. In this ‘islanding’ system, Tata Power continues to get assured supply from MahaVitaran, the state power distribution company. R-Infra and BEST draw substantial power from Tata Power to serve their customers.
Tata Power has said the disruption on November 18 was due to a frequency collapsed on a large mismatch between load and demand. On November 21, supply was disrupted due to tripping of the 220 Kv Trombay-Dharavi and other 110 Kv lines.
