Maharashtra government sends notice to Tata Power

The Maharashtra government has asked Tata Power to explain that its Trombay power plant is not in compliance with its directive to ramp up production. Due to this, the city stagnated on the morning of February 27th.

The State Load Despatch Centre asked the company to send detailed reasons for the power outages or it will take strict action against the company as per the Electricity Act 2003. It also said that there was continuous overdraw of electricity to the tune of 800-1700 MW from the control centre to pick up hydro generation by 400 MW to control overdraw. However, Tata Power's hydropower did not reach the required capacity. This jeopardized the stability of the grid.

MSLDC has ordered hydropower and heat generation to start to the maximum available capacity due to a system limitation that only two transmission lines will continue to operate after a trip from the 220 kV Mulund to the Trombay line.

"But in this emergency, the TPC also did not follow the instructions of the MSLDC control room, and thermal and hydro generation did not increase according to system requirements. 

In addition, 220 kV Trombay Salsette 2 tripped overload, which was not expected due to the clear recommendations from the HLC committee formed by MERC to eliminate overload trips on the 220kV line. Then Unit 5 and Unit 8 of the Trombay tripped causing a load loss of 850 MW in the Mumbai area.

According to a government official, Tata Power was importing cheaper power from the spot market in order to maintain its competitive position, which put an additional burden on the transmission system and the Trombay plant failed to enter the islanding mode, which ensures uninterrupted supply in Mumbai in case of any voltage fluctuations in the rest of the grid.