Power outages affect life in many parts of Mumbai

Paralyses work at various establishments including banks, trade and commercial offices

The tripping of a 500-Mw generation unit of Tata Power on Tuesday morning led to power outages in several parts of South and Central Mumbai, an unusual event in this city.

For technical reasons, it was not possible to bring power from outside the city to tide over the crisis and the supply could be restored only around 8:30 pm.

Through the day, the outages affected the functioning of banks, trading houses and commercial establishments and hotels. Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST) supplies power, sourced from Tata Power, to about a million consumers in the city.

“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,” tweeted industrialist Anand Mahindra, chairman and managing director of the Mahindra group.

Tata Power Company said the power cut, which began at 9.45 am, was caused by a technical fault at one of its units and forced it to switch off power to some areas of the city, including business districts. The company did not say what caused the fault at the plant.

Overloading of the state transmission network prevented local electricity distribution companies from sourcing extra power available elsewhere in India into Mumbai, Tata said.

Reliance Infrastructure, which supplies power in the city’s western suburbs, also had to curtail supply on the state load dispatch centre’s instructions.

Tata Power’s distribution licence (valid up to August 2039) was renewed only last month.