Electric shock: Power outages sound alarm as demand surges

On Thursday, peak electricity demand breached the 4,500- MW threshold for the first time. Are power companies preparing for the future?

MUMBAI: An ageing power cable network, rising power demand, unprecedented summer heat and rapid real-estate expansion has begun to take a toll. It’s causing frequent power outages and outages in localities where there used to be none – a warning that local fixes and temporary solutions will not hold for long.

Electric shock: Power outages sound alarm as demand surges

Residents of Dadar, Sion, Wadala, Matunga, Borivali and Vile Parle will vouch for this. They experienced power outages, whose duration ranges from 10 minutes to 10 hours in the last fortnight as temperatures soared to 40 degrees Celsius.

Residents, traders hit hard

For businesses and residents in Dadar, the timing could not have been worse. On May 14, 3,000 consumers of BEST, that is, residents and shopkeepers in Dadar and Matunga, were stranded without electricity for 10 hours.

It struck on a day when Mumbai’s peak electricity demand breached the 4,500-megawatt (MW) threshold for the first time, driven by a blistering heatwave and the non-stop operation of cooling air-conditioning systems. In summer, peak demand typically hovers around 3,900-4,000 MW.

Rajkumar Dubey, 52, who has owned Aishwarya Collections near Dadar’s Plaza Cinema for 35 years, says the outage was unprecedented. “New skyscrapers are coming up everywhere, which has massively increased the demand for electricity and the load on the system. Combined with frequent road works, our cables keep getting damaged,” Dubey said.

On Thursday, nearly 1,500 shops in the commercial hub along Dadar market suffered average losses of ₹10,000 each. “Customers refused to enter the shops because it was pitch dark inside, and the BEST control room wasn’t giving us any definite time for restoration,” he said.

Residential areas fared no better. The first outage occurred at 4.30am but the second one, at 11:00am, was a lot worse.

Not far away, residents of Sion and Wadala were without electricity in the evening. Locals said this was the second outage in the last few months. Many areas in the western suburbs too have experienced power breakdowns in recent times.

In Vile Parle east, senior citizen Neeta Siddhaye said, “All the lights went off around midnight. The outage lasted only a few minutes, but it was enough to interrupt our sleep,” she said.

In Borivali west, Badal Agarwal, a resident of LIC Colony, said: “We’ve never had power outage problems before but, in the few weeks, we’ve experienced quite a few power cuts.”

What so many outages?

Distribution companies blame frequent power outages on the rising demand for power, attributed to the extremely hot and humid weather. BEST sources say this is testing the city’s aging electrical infrastructure.

“A critical fault in a 33-KV feeder line connected to the Sitladevi receiving substation led to issues with a power cable as well. The underground cable appears to have suffered minor damage during civil work, which escalated into a major supply issue under high load,” a senior BEST official said.

Since local plants only generate a fraction of what the city consumes, the remaining 3,650 MW is sucked into the metropolitan region through external transmission networks, putting pressure on receiving substations and ageing underground cables. According to Adani Electricity, demand has already crossed an all-time high of 2,400 MW in the suburbs, reflecting the impact of extreme summer temperatures.

“Peak demand is typically experienced in June, just before the monsoon, and we are preparing accordingly. Higher temperatures and increased demand can put stress on older assets. We have proactively mitigated this risk by replacing aged equipment before the season, maintaining optimal loading levels, and carrying out preventive maintenance drives. Advanced diagnostic tools such as thermography and partial discharge testing are also used to monitor asset health,” said a spokesperson for Adani Electricity.

Meanwhile, BEST officials said a project to replace the city’s ageing underground cable network has already commenced. “The 80-year-old cable network is being replaced by us in a phased manner,” said a BEST official.

According to a Tata Power spokesperson, peak power demand recorded this summer in Mumbai was 4,579 MW on May 11, of which Tata Power catered to 1,316 MW. “Power demand is largely influenced by weather conditions. As summer conditions have now stabilized in terms of temperature and humidity, and no significant increase is anticipated, we do not expect any further rise in power demand in the coming days,” said the spokesperson.