today

The Times of India says: Mumbai’s entire power transmission network is underground. And, hence, the distribution transformers and the distribution pillars are at ground level. "We cannot raise the transformers beyond a particular height," said a REL official. But REL claims to have spent Rs 30 crore on raising the height of vulnerable sub-stations and distribution transformers. Asked why these measures did not help on Saturday, the REL spokesperson said the level of water was very high. "Ultimately, the meters in individual buildings are just two feet above ground. The meters are at danger of getting flooded," he said.

State power utility MSEB did not fare any better. The excuse for a power-less Saturday here was flooding of its sub-stations. "Our sub-stations at Vasai, Vashi, Thane, Mulund and Bhandup were all flooded. Had we continued supply, the sub-stations could have got damaged, causing huge losses."

With some 18 million consumers, Mumbai's electric power grid is one of the most insatiable systems in the world. Abundant power has been delivered chiefly from local hydroelectric projects that have been running since colonial times. The problem today is matching the rate of growth of the 21st Century version of the city. Increasing the availability, reliability, and quality of electricity is a long-term goal that will be met only with tens of thousands more megawatts of generation capacity. In the near term, administrators and engineers from Mumbai's power companies, along with government regulators, are doing their best to stave off planned brownouts, not to mention even worse conditions. "We're going to have to take a big deep breath and say, we're going to invest," Grove-White told Goldstein regarding Tata's planning. "We know what we need to do, and we will sell this output ultimately."

In the meantime, Mumbai's utilities and local government have mounted an all-out public awareness campaign to use energy wisely, if any.

There is also a (rather unconvincing) article here.

IMO: After the mob stoned MSEB office in Vasai goan at the beginning of May, power apparently was cut to 2.5-4 hrs from 7 hrs and then it went up again but I have no idea what needs doing at this time. The trains may get better after the hard work, legal action and many protests, there may even be trams, hopefully somehow the power may improve.