Mumbaikars pay MSEDCL Rs 5 crore annually to avoid power outages

Yesterdayrsquos power outage has once again exposed the infrastructural shortcomings of Mumbai which is touted to be the financial nerve centre of the countryAlso read Mumbai power cut Outage leaves senior citizen gasping for breathWHERE THERES A WHEEL THERES A WAY A scooters headlight serves to illuminate a Ganesh idol for the aarti in Sion Koliwada yesterday evening PicPradeep DhivarThe 500MW Tata Power unit that tripped yesterday causing a ripple effect in terms of power outages in most parts of the city is one of many run by the company in Trombay The power plant was started in 1956Power offTata Power has an effective generating capacity of 1877 MW Of this 250 MW is not being produced as their Unit 8 has been shut since a fire occurred there in January this year The 500MW Unit 6 is also offline as it uses oil which was proving too expensive And yesterday the 500MW Unit 5 had to be shut because of a technical glitch which means that almost 67 per cent of TPCrsquos capacity is currently out of commissionAlso read Power cut hits Mumbais financial districts hardestAll powerful yet powerless A Ganpati mandal in Khetwadi Girgaum uses a small diya to illuminate the pandal top right areas that experienced partial load shedding as a precautionary measure PicEmmanual KarbhariAs part of a longterm agreement the BEST undertaking gets 1000 MW from Tata Power and the rest is supplied to Reliance Infrastructure and Tata Powerrsquos own consumersSources in Tata Power said that the turbines of Unit 5 tripped yesterday leading to power outages in most of Mumbai The turbines tripped around 945 am which is close to the time when most offices start their day As a precautionary measure areas like Nariman Point Byculla Lower Parel Sewri Mahalaxmi Worli Dadar Sion BandraKurla Complex Juhu Ghatkopar Marol Sakinaka Girgaum and Chembur saw partial load sheddingThe spokesperson for Tata Power said last evening that partial load had been restored through the hydro stations and rotational load shedding was being carried out ldquoWe will restart Unit 6 which uses oil for supplying electricity to the BEST However that process will take at least 15 hoursrdquo the official saidAs of the evening restoration work was in progress and was expected to go on throughout the night The plants were expected to be fully restored and power supply normalised by late last nightInfra woesPower experts say that at a time when Mumbairsquos power demand is surging and there is little scope of buying cheaper power the least power companies and the government can do is to ensure that the plants are robust They also pointed out that Mumbaikars pay Rs 5 crore annually as lsquostandby chargesrsquo to the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd MSEDCL which was meant as a foolproof provision against power cuts in MumbaiThis charge is part of the electricity bill that is sent every month to lakhs of people every day and the MSEDCL is expected to supply backup electricity in the event of a power outage to ensure 24hour power supply to Mumbai In yesterdayrsquos case however MSEDCL officials claimed Tata Powerrsquos transmission lines couldnrsquot take the heavy load ldquoWe supplied 250 MW to Tata Power but their transmission network was loaded and we couldnrsquot supply morerdquo said an MSEDCL official adding that the power cuts could have been averted if it had been able to do soAs a result of this the city was faced with the unappetising prospect of power cuts even on Tuesday night ldquoThree Tata Power units generating around 1250 MW are shut We will be forced to carry out load shedding even on Tuesday nightrdquo said a BEST officialExperts claimed that the main weak link on the transmission network of Tata Power was the SalsetteChembur network which gets power into south Mumbai and couldnrsquot take the additional load ldquoThere is a need to strengthen the SalsetteChembur network as soon as possible if they want power supply from Maharashtra otherwise load shedding will be inevitable in such cases in the future as wellrdquo said a power expertSoBo dilemmaOn August 14 the Maharashtra Electricity Regulation Commission MERC gave a remarkable decision when it renewed Tata Powerrsquos licence and allowed it to enter the island city However the 10 lakh consumers in the area will have to wait longer for cheaper electricity as Tata Power will have to spend crores in creating its own network Sources said that it would take at least two years for Tata Power to lay cables throughout the island city duplicating BESTrsquos networkThe company cannot use BESTrsquos cables ldquoThere is no provision made in the MERC order for Tata Power to use BESTrsquos cablesrdquo said a BEST official on condition of anonymityAt present under a special provision Tata Power is using Reliance Infrastructurersquos network apart from its own cables to supply electricity in the eastern and western suburbs Due to this all consumers shifting to Tata Power are paying a certain surcharge for using the Rinfra network