Substation fire in Uttar Pradesh disrupts Delhi power supply

What happened

On 11 June 2024, a fire was reported at the Mandola sub-station of Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd near Loni in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. The fire was reported to interrupt supply from the sub-station, from which Delhi was said to receive 1200 MW, and to affect downstream grid sub-stations including Gopalpur, Sabzi Mandi, Kashmiri Gate and Narela. Outages were reported in parts of north, central, east and south Delhi, including Civil Lines, Model Town, Kashmiri Gate, ITO, Laxmi Nagar, Narela and Gopalpur.

One distribution company said supply in its area, including load shedding reported at 440 MW and about 400,000 consumers, was restored within an hour. A separate official account put the outage at nearly two hours in several areas. The cause of the fire was not reported.

Contributing factors

The cause of the fire was not reported. The reported effect was loss of supply from the Mandola sub-station to downstream Delhi grid sub-stations during hot weather, when uninterrupted supply was already under strain.

Lessons learned

1. A fire at one upstream grid sub-station can interrupt supply to several downstream sub-stations and a large number of customers.
2. Restoration reports should state the affected load, the areas involved and the time to restore, and should note where those figures differ.
3. Public accounts should distinguish a local sub-station fire from a wider grid failure so the scale of the event is not overstated.

More lessons on outages, backup supply and restoration, emergency response and public communication, from every incident on the register.

Source

rediff.com