Central Electricity Authority starts probe into Mumbai power outage incident

A committee appointed by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) to probe the Mumbai power outage incident on October 12 started its investigation on Tuesday afternoon.

A committee appointed by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) to probe the Mumbai power outage incident on October 12 started its investigation on Tuesday afternoon. The committee is investigating if there were lapses in the response to technical faults. It will also investigate why the islanding system that separates Mumbai in case of a state grid failure did not work owing to the sudden load. While state energy minister Nitin Raut had said that the state would form a panel to probe the lapse, committee members were not named until Wednesday evening.

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Dinesh Waghmare, managing director of the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL), said, “The CEA committee is probing if the response to the technical fault was prompt or if there was any laxity observed.” Sources said that the committee is looking at suggesting measures to augment Mumbai’s transmission system.

Raut on Wednesday reiterated that the state cannot rule out the possibility of sabotage that resulted in the massive outage in Mumbai and neighbouring areas.

“Mumbai being in the dark is not a simple matter. We will have a high-level inquiry on this and all the officials who are responsible will be taken to task,” Raut said on Wednesday.

The state government had appointed an expert committee headed by Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay (IIT-B) professor SA Khaparde to study a similar outage in Mumbai in November 2010 and offer solutions. The committee submitted its report in June 2011.

Raut said that he has also asked officials to submit a report on how many of the recommendations mentioned in the study were implemented.