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On October 12, demand for power in Mumbai Metropolitan Region reached around 2,600 MW which is usually higher than the peak demand which is around 2,400 MW (collectively of all the seven states in the North East).
Then the third of the four transmission lines that bring power to MMR, tripped and shut down. Soon, The fourth line also tripped. Over the weekend, the first line was already under repair. And early Monday morning, the second line also gets tripped due to high voltage.
Image source: news18.com
The state government already knows about the alarming effect of this huge requirement of the city. And it seems that Administration is doing nothing about it. But the main challenge is Mumbai’s own generation capacity to meet this endless demand of the same. It is important to add more lines, to these present four lines, that bring power from the external grids.
All these four-line shuttings down make it more critical to fill the deficit in Mumbai’s power supply. The city’s own generation capacity comes from Tata Power’s plant in Trombay, with additional back-up from its three hydro units which is located in the Pune district. To add these in it, the other plant that is working as a second source of supply is the Dahanu plant of Adani Electricity Mumbai Ltd. (AEML).
As per the 2018 report by Western Region, Power Committee says the system has helped Mumbai stay immune to the major grid disturbances- which otherwise affected other parts of the state and country- 27 times, since the year 1981.
There is another major problem, this blame could be put on the MSETCL, or the state electricity. Which is in charge of the transmission lines. It is said by some of the authorities that the problem can be cured if there is regular maintenance can be done. If the technology can not be allotted for this work, then physical patrolling is needed to check for loose ends that should be immediately repaired,” says one of the experts.
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Thumbnail image source: indiantimes.com
