Served notice, Tata Power says govt firm shirking responsibility

The Maharashtra State Load Despatch Centre MSLDC which manages the electricity network realtime has served a notice to Tata Power Company Ltd seeking explanation within 15 days for not following its instructionsIt has sought an explanation for ldquorepeated noncompliancerdquo of its control room instructions asking to pick up generation as per system requirement on February 27 when there was a 70minute power outage in parts of the city and the suburbs and on February 22 that threatened the electricity gridrsquos stabilityThe MSLDC said appropriate action will be initiated if the explanation is not provided within 15 days of the issuance of the notice March 2 which was addressed to Power System Control Centre at Trombay Thermal Power Station in ChemburTata Power shot back saying the assumptions of noncompliance were incorrect It asked stateowned power transmission company MSETCL and its subsidiary MSLDC to not absolve themselves of responsibility for failing to take preventive measuresMSLDC Executive Director Shrikant Jaltare has signed the notice The MSLDC is investigating the incidents particularly the outage on February 27 which reminded the consumers of a prolonged breakdown in October 2022The incidentsAbout the February 22 incident the notice says there was continuous overdrawal to the tune of 8001700 MW from the central sector grid in block nos 2632 at a very low frequency of the order of 4963 Hz The Koyna hydro generation of the state company was picked up to full capacity it says ldquoAt 0631 hrs block 27 MSLDC instructed Power System Control Centre to pick up hydro generation by 400 MW for the block 27 to 31 to control overdrawal However Tata Power hydro generation did not pick up to required capacity This resulted in a threat to the grid in the mentioned periodrdquo the notice readThe MSLDC says that on February 27 at 0930 am it had directed Tata to pick up hydro and thermal generation to its full available capacity as there were system constraints because only 220kV KalwaTrombay and TrombaySalsette 2 line remained in service after tripping of 220kV MulundTrombay line ldquoHowever under this emergency situation also Tata Power Company has not followed the directives of MSLDC control room and thermal and hydro generation was not ramped up as per system requirement In addition 220kV TrombaySalsette 2 tripped on an overload that was not expected to happen as there is clear recommendation from the HLC committee constituted by MERC to remove overload tripping on 220kV lines Subsequently Unit 5 and Unit 8 at Trombay tripped causing load loss to the tune of 850 MW in Mumbai Areardquo it addedIn the matter on February 27 at 0930 hrs it was also instructed by MSLDC to take 220kV SalsetteTrombay line 1 into service immediately but the same was not complied in time the notice states It has quoted Section 322e of Electricity Act 2003 to explain the role of the MSLDC for being responsible for carrying out realtime operations for grid control and despatch of electricity within the state through secure and economic operation of the state grid in accordance with the Grid Standards and the State Grid Code The Act also says that every licensee generating company generating station substation and any other person connected with the operation of the power system is required to comply with the direction of the MSLDCldquoHowever in above incidences sic noncompliance of the directives given by MSLDC control room are clearly noticed It is therefore requested to submit an explanation for noncompliance of the directives of MSLDC within 15 days from the date of this notice otherwise appropriate action shall be initiated under the various provisions of Section 33 of the Electricity Act 2003rdquo the notice concludesIncorrect assumption TataIn response Tata Power spokesperson told midday in a statement the issuance of the notice was part of laid out procedures during such events and in no way suggested any fault on the companys part ldquoWe shall respond accordingly However we would like to reiterate that their assumptions about noncompliance with instructions are incorrect under the new DSM Deviation Settlement Mechanism regime the MSLDC has the ability to enter the additional generation required into the system any time via a mechanism called VSE Virtual State Entity which takes only 15 seconds to activaterdquoIt added ldquoThe first communication from the MSLDC to pick up generation occurred on February 27 at 0930 hrs according to phone recordings available at both ends and witnessed by top authorities present at Trombay We responded immediately to the issue that had evolved as a result of MSETCLrsquos grid tripping MSETCL and MSLDC should not absolve themselves of the responsibility of failing to take any preventive measuresrdquoMarch 22Day the notice was issued