Fire at transmission substation disrupts power supply in Pimpri-Chinchwad, Metro hit

According to MSEDCL, around 2.6 lakh consumers in Pimpri-Chinchwad and Bhosari were affected by the disruption. The incident also had a cascading impact on parts of Pune, with around 50,000 consumers in Shivajinagar, Aundh, Ganeshkhind, Senapati Bapat Road, Shivajinagar Gaothan, Model Colony and Bal Gandharva areas facing an outage. The disruption in Pune was caused by the impact on the Rahatani and Ganeshkhind 132-kV lines originating from the Chinchwad substation. Power supply to these areas was restored around 1.50 pm. The Ganeshkhind substation also supplies power to Pune Metro, and this supply was disrupted for some time affecting the services on PCMC Swargate line. An alternate supply provided to the Metro restored its services within 25 minutes, officials said.

MSEDCL used available alternative supply routes to restore power to most affected areas, with supply in large parts restored by around 3 pm. However, restoration was delayed in Nigdi, Yamunanagar, Bijlinagar, Ravet, Mamurdi, Dehu Road, Chinchwad, Tathawade and Wakad. Around 1.25 lakh consumers in these areas were still awaiting restoration and required additional time for supply to be normalised. The disruption also affected the 132-kV substations at Ambethan in Chakan and Talegaon. MSEDCL restored supply to Talegaon city through an alternative line from Khopoli, providing relief to domestic consumers. However, technical limitations delayed restoration of power to industrial consumers.

At Ambethan, where supply was disrupted at 12.25 pm, restoration was completed around 4.20 pm. The outage affected approximately 1,500 industries in the area. MSETCL continued work to isolate the damaged portion of the Chinchwad substation and restore the remaining transmission network. MSEDCL officials meanwhile continued efforts to restore supply to the remaining affected areas through alternative arrangements.