Majority of the areas of South Gujarat, including Surat and Navsari, suffered power outages from Wednesday afternoon, leaving more than 32 lakh consumers in seven districts of South Gujarat to combat the heat wave without electricity and face work hour losses in industrial setups. Officials said a 400 kV ASOJ line tripped, causing a major disruption in the grid, forcing Ukai, Kakrapar and SLPP power stations to shut down.
Work came to a standstill in factories and industries across Surat, Vapi, Valsad, Ankleshwar and Rajpipla, driving frustrated residents to stage protests at Torrent Power’s office in Surat. Regarding the entire incident, DGVCL has said that 90 percent of the power supply has been restored and 100 percent electricity will be restored in the coming hours. “By 7.30 pm, 90 percent of the power supply has been restored and further restoration efforts are underway with due care and caution.” officials said.
According to reports received from Getco and LMU, 500 MW power generation was reduced due to tripping of four units of Ukai TPS. A major disruption occurred in the grid due to tripping of 400 kV Asoj line. The State Load Dispatch Center (SLDC) took immediate steps to resolve the entire matter.
Reports from GETCO and LMU indicate that a major disruption occurred in the grid due to the tripping of the 400 kV ASOJ line in Jambua. “The issue of low voltage arose. Power started fluctuating, in which it was revealed that the demand of DGVCL had come down from 5200 MW to 700 MW. While 3,461 villages in 45 talukas of 7 districts of South Gujarat were affected due to the power outage,” he said.
State load dispense centre line tripped
DGVCL managing director Yogesh Chaudhary said that the 400 kV high voltage source line had tripped. “There is a problem in the entire South Gujarat. There was a power cut in cities including Tapi, Bharuch, Rajpipla, Surat, Navsari.”