A CASE STUDY ON MUMBAI POWER BACKOUTS :

BY : Atul Nair
DEPT : EEE
‘A’ REG. NO:
RA2111005010004

INTRODUCTION:
A blackout in the power system is a widespread loss of electrical power, often
caused by faults or disruptions. Power system protection refers to measures and
technologies designed to detect and mitigate these issues, preventing cascading failures
and minimizing the impact of blackouts. It involves rapid response mechanisms and
advanced technologies aimed at maintaining grid stability and reliability.
The Mumbai power outage of October 2020 serves as a compelling case study
highlighting the vulnerabilities and complexities of urban power systems. On
October 12, 2020, Mumbai, India's financial capital, experienced a massive power
outage that left millions of residents and businesses without electricity for several
hours.

This outage, which affected vast areas of the city, was attributed to a cascading failure
within the power grid, triggered by a technical issue in a circuit breaker at a suburban
substation. The incident disrupted train services, halted traffic signals, impacted
hospitals, and disrupted various essential services, showcasing the far-reaching

PREVIOUS BLACKOUTS
1. Two massive blackouts struck India in quick succession, affecting most of the northern
and eastern regions and leaving 300 million people without power. The cause was the
tripping of circuit breakers on the 400kV Bina-Gwalior transmission line feeding into the
Agra-Bareilly section, cascading failures throughout the grid. As a result, major power plants
in five states were forced to shut down, leading to a shortage of 32GW.
The system collapsed again due to relay issues near Agra, causing additional shutdowns
across affected areas. These events highlighted vulnerabilities in India's power
infrastructure and the need for upgrades to prevent such widespread outages in the future.

2. Bangladesh had a big blackout in 2014. The Bheramara substation could not handle too
much power. It could only take 400MW. When it lost power, the frequency dropped. It
went down to 45 cycles per second. This caused a surge of electricity. The surge made the
whole country lose power. Pakistan had a blackout in 2015 too. One of its powers lines
broke. Rebels attacked and caused 6000MW of electricity to trip.
3. A severe blackout hit Venezuela in 2019. The cause? A vegetation fire on all three 765kv
lines between Guri Dam and Malena substation. This disrupted the Guri hydroelectric
plant's transmission. The outage impacted countless lives, halting services across the
nation. Chaos ensued as people grappled with darkness blanketing cities and towns. A
nation-wide crisis unfolded.

MUMBAI ISLANDING SYSTEM:

Understanding islanding schemes is crucial to grasp how power outages impact.

Mumbai's islanding system was set up in 1981 by Tata Power.
It protects the city from blackouts during grid failures. Blackouts could cause law and
order issues in this densely populated financial hub.
Mumbai's robust, unique islanding system ensures uninterrupted power supply citywide. It
has prevented around 27 major blackouts at various times due to technical faults. The
device was created by TATA power supply. Its main goals were load generation balance,
avoiding generator trips, load shedding with fast opening/closing of designated feeders to
match load generation balance, and quick restoration through instantaneous isolation of
identified tie points. The system had rich islanding capabilities.
Frequency is crucial for sustaining a robust islanding system. If the frequency drops, the
system restores itself through a combination of under-frequency controls and power flow
into the grid, triggering the islanding scheme. Additionally, the islanding scheme is coupled
with reverse power flow. Conversely, if the frequency increases, an auto-restoration
scheme stabilizes the frequency of the islanding system, maintaining normal conditions.
However, if the islanding scheme fails to restore or isolate the system, backup islanding
schemes provide redundancy for smooth power flow.
MUMBAI POWER OUTRAGE:
As electricity power grid is human made system, the errors and technical problems are
quite natural but whatever it maybe it is required to have proper protection system to
safeguard electrical appliances and for hassle free human lives.
Mumbai is India's financial capital city. A major power failure in October 2020 caused a
blackout there. This happened due to problems with the nationwide electric grid system.
India has five regional grids that work together. The outage was the worst blackout in
decades for this highly developed area. It interrupted many services, affecting customers.
The main electric providers in Mumbai are government-run BEST, as well as private
companies Adani and TATA. BEST supplies around 1,050,000 customers. Adani serves
about 2,700,000. TATA has roughly 700,000 customers in the city.
The financial capital of India, Mumbai, experienced a massive power outage in October
2020. This was due to a failure in the grid system. India's power grid is divided into five
regional grids, which are interconnected. This power outage was one of the worst blackouts
in decades, affecting a highly developed and infrastructure-rich state. Most services were
disrupted, and customers were significantly impacted. The main sources of electric power
in Mumbai are the state-run Brihanmumbai Electric Supply and Transport (BEST), Adani
Electricity, and Tata Power. They supply electricity to around 10.5 lakhs, 27 lakhs, and 7
lakh customers, respectively.
A massive power outage happened in the financial capital of India; Mumbai in October 2020
due to the failure in grid system. Basically, Indian power grid has five different regional
based grids and these are of course synchronized to each other. This type of power outage
has recorded as worst blackout over decades that too in a highly infrastructure state and
most of the services got interrupted, customers got affected. Mainly, the sources of electric
power in Mumbai were fulfilled by state-run Brihan Mumbai electric supply and transport
(BEST), Adani Electricity and TATA power supply into city with the customers of about 10.5
lakhs, 27 lakhs, 7 lakh customers respectively. It was claimed that the power outage in
Mumbai was interrupted due to TATA's incoming supply failure, which was one of the
leading generation and distribution companies.
On the careful investigation, and according to the document issued by Tata power supply,
it is evident that at around 10.00 am Maharashtra state electricity transmission company
limited (MSETCL's) 400Kv transmission line which used to supply power to Mumbai and its
surrounding areas such as Mumbai Central, Thane, Jogeshwari, Wadala, chembur, Dadar,
Kandavili and so on, However the line at kalwa got tripped. And at the same time,
according to Tata power supply, the pune-kalwa line was under forced shut down since
before day due to line-to-line fault i.e., RY line fault in the system. Further, MSETCL called
for emergency shutdown for second power line of capacity 400Kv kalwa-pagdhe and
maintenance work started on kalwa-pagdhe line and estimated to clear the fault and
planned to bring into original position after attending the fault but it was failed.
 This led to tripping in third power line of kalwa-padghe which is carrying 634MW of power
got tripped. Consequently, Kalwa, Kharghar power plants also tripped along with heave
sparking led to complete trip in Pune-Kharghar line. It is observed that Pune-Kharghar
raised up to nearly 900MW capacity and tripped by resulting in sudden load drop in
Mumbai power system network. It is estimated that there is a total load loss of 2600MW in
Mumbai. The supply was restored back by supplying power from three hydro units and
Trombay gas and coal units as soon as when MSETCL transmission lines were connected
and the entire power system network as in stable condition.

REVIEW ON MUMBAI POWER OUTAGE:

The Mumbai power outage in October 2020 was a significant event that disrupted
the
lives of millions and exposed vulnerabilities in the city's power infrastructure. While
the precise cause of the outage was initially attributed to a technical glitch in a circuit
breaker at a suburban substation, the incident raised questions about the reliability and
resilience of Mumbai's power grid.

The outage disrupted essential services, including transportation, hospitals, and

businesses, highlighting the widespread impact of such failures in densely populated
urban areas. It also underscored the need for robust contingency plans and rapid
response mechanisms to manage emergencies effectively.

Authorities faced criticism for the delayed restoration of power and communication
failures during the outage, prompting calls for improvements in crisis management and
coordination among utility providers, government agencies, and emergency
responders.
IMPACTS:
The power outage in Mumbai in October 2020 had profound impacts on the city and its residents. W

Businesses, big and small, suffered as they had to close their doors, resulting in financial losses an

Safety concerns loomed large, especially for those reliant on medical equipment or living in high-rise

This incident shed light on the vulnerabilities of Mumbai's power infrastructure, emphasizing the urg
 effective emergency response measures in ensuring the well-being and functioning of urban com

CONCLUSION:
It is important and necessary to protect an Indian power grid and Indian power system as
the entire world rely on the electricity. In order to ensure the smooth and reliable
operations, the islanding system with high sophisticated schemes, techniques to reduce
isolation times in case of break downs, fast fault detection systems, regular maintenance
with time to time monitoring, implementation of new updated technologies, adopting new
concepts like incorporating FACTS controllers into transmission lines for smooth power
flow, HVDC, smart grid technologies, advancements in safety and effective development in
distributed energy sources, exploration of new technologies and its effects (Jadhac &
Sankeswari, 2019; Adibi & Martins, 2015) and so on are needed to be focused in wide
areas.
The interruptions rate should be minimized as much as possible to maximum extent. The
redundancy technique, contingency analysis of transmission network will also help to
assure reliability in the system