Pune: Electricity Outage Hits Chakan, Pimpri, Bhosari After MahaTransco Tower Line Trips Due to Burning Sugarcane
Pune, 23rd February 2025: A major power outage affected nearly 1.9 lakh consumers in Pimpri-Chinchwad, Chakan MIDC, and surrounding areas on Sunday morning after the tripping of MahaTransco’s 400 KV Lonikand-Talegaon tower line. The disruption occurred due to burning sugarcane in a field between Markal and Alandi, which caused the transmission line to trip at 10:09 AM, resulting in a power deficit of 314 MW.
To prevent further damage, MahaTransco’s automatic Load Trimming Scheme (LTS) was activated, leading to a power cut at five extra high voltage substations—Chakan 400 KV, Chakan 220 KV, Chinchwad 220 KV, Bhosari 220 KV, and Bridge Stone 220 KV. Additionally, power supply was disrupted across 16 substations and 129 power lines of MSEDCL, affecting industrial, commercial, and residential areas.
The outage impacted around 900 high-voltage industrial consumers and 4,000 low-voltage industrial units in Chakan MIDC, along with 35,000 domestic and commercial users in villages such as Shindegaon, Savardari, Varale, Vasuli, Yelawadi, Khalumbre, Sangurdi, and Chimboli. In Pimpri-Chinchwad, Bhosari, and nearby localities, approximately 1.5 lakh consumers were affected, including those in Punawale, Tathawade, Rahatani, Thergaon, Tukaram Nagar, Nashik Road, Indrayani Nagar, and Landewadi.
Following the incident, MahaTransco engineers and staff conducted an urgent inspection and discovered that smoke from burning sugarcane beneath the transmission line caused vaporization, leading to the 400 KV line tripping. Immediate action was taken to extinguish the fire, after which the tower line was inspected and power supply was successfully restored by 11:06 AM.
Authorities have urged farmers and landowners to take precautions when burning crops near high-voltage transmission lines to prevent such incidents in the future.
