(MENAFN- The Peninsula) A sudden power crisis gripped India's commercial capital yesterday with several areas facing power blackouts and load-shedding as a key power generating station developed problems. Normal power supply was only likely to be restored by late in the night.
The erratic supply was on account of tripping of Tata Power's 500 MW Trombay Power Station Unit No.5 at around 9.45 am on account of a technical hurdle, a Tata Power Company (TPC) official said.
Though restoration work was in full swing, erratic supply continued till evening with TPC announcing that full restoration would be possible only by late last night.
Partial supply was restored through hydroelectric stations and TPC activated the initialisation activities of its cold standby Unit No. 6, which runs on oil and was kept on hold with the consent of the procurers.
The TPC said that though power was available in neighbouring areas of Maharashtra, due to overloading of the state transmission network it could not import power for Mumbai from other distribution companies.
Accordingly, the three main power distributors for Mumbai's nearly 17 million people - TPC, Reliance Energy and BEST - were doing rotational load-shedding in their respective areas, with around 200-300 MW of power available.
The power blackout and load-shedding - unprecedented for Mumbai in more than a decade, according to state government officials - hit business and commercial operations, besides inconveniencing millions of people in residential areas.
The areas affected included the business districts of Bandra, Andheri-Saki Naka, Kurla, Parel, Mahalaxmi, and the residential areas of Juhu, Dharavi, Chembur and Grant Road in Mumbai, Santacruz, Ghatkopar, Tilak Nagar and Vikhroli.
Reliance Energy informed through social media that it was in constant touch with Tata Power to ensure restoration of normalcy at the earliest.
The BEST, which supplies power to southern Mumbai, said that after the tripping, Tata Power had cut off supply to various feeder units, which resulted in load-shedding.
As soon as Tata Power restores supply, the feeders will be switched on to ensure normal supply, BEST officials added.
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