Substation fire disrupts power supply across Delhi

What happened

On the afternoon of 11 June 2024, a fire was reported at the Mandola substation of Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd, near Loni in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. The substation was reported to supply 1200 MW to Delhi. Outages followed in parts of central, east, north and south Delhi. Named areas included ITO, Laxmi Nagar, Lajpat Nagar, Jamia, Narela, Rohini, Gopalpur, Sabzi Mandi, Wazirpur, Wazirabad, Geeta Colony, Harsh Vihar, Preet Vihar, IP Power and Rajghat.

The report also said areas likely to have been affected in north Delhi included Civil Lines, Model Town, Kashmiri Gate, Gulabi Bagh, Shakti Nagar and Vijay Nagar. Supply to the LG House and the Chief Minister's residence was briefly affected. A distribution company said supply in its areas, including a reported 440 MW affecting about 400,000 consumers, was restored within an hour. A letter reported in the same article described an outage of nearly two hours in several parts of the city.

Contributing factors

The cause of the fire was not reported.

Lessons learned

1. Loss of one upstream grid substation can interrupt supply across a wide city, so operators should know which downstream stations depend on it and how load can be switched.
2. Public accounts of the same outage can differ on duration, so restoration times should be logged and stated consistently.
3. During a heatwave, even a short outage has a high impact, so contingency plans should prioritise rapid restoration and clear updates.

Source

rediff.com