DIAL to set up independent technical panel to probe T3 power outage

After a review meeting with the civil aviation ministry, Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL) on Monday said an independent technical auditor would be appointed to review power supply in the mammoth T3 terminal, where there was a five-hour black out on Sunday.

“The civil aviation ministry wanted it to be reviewed by a third-party technical committee,” said an airport source, requesting anonymity. Preliminary investigations by DIAL indicate the tripping was due to a rare technical fault — an extremely rare occurrence.

DIAL is the operator of Delhi airport and has already set up a three-member committee comprising members of Delhi International Airport Ltd, L&T and electrical equipment supplier Areva T&D India.

The power cut had brought operations at the terminal to a standstill on Sunday, delaying 80 domestic and international flights and causing inconvenience to flyers.

The T3 terminal, completed its first anniversary only this July. The problem started when a transformer that supplies power to the terminal tripped due to an electrical fault.

Power supply to the entire building was disrupted and operations related to baggage handling system, passenger boarding (aero) bridges, piers, escalators and travelators came to a standstill. Mumbai and Hyderabad airports claimed they were fully prepared to handle such situations.

“Generator sets are a source of back-up in case power supply gets disturbed. They are sufficient to light up all terminals. The sets are tested manually everyday on no-load and for an hour on existing load once a month. These also have annual maintenance contracts with the original equipment manufacturer. All utilities have back-up to generator sets,” said an email reply from Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL).

MIAL said all data centers were equipped with UPS back-up power. A spokesperson for Hyderabad airport said: “We would like to state that adequate provisions for all contingencies are provided for at RGIA.”