Four-hour power cuts in Vadodara for 4 days from today

An official of the MGVCL engineering department told this newspaper that the power cuts are not to be viewed as load-shedding in the backdrop of coal deficit in the country and that it was “regular” for mandatory maintenance.

The official said, “The local divisions of MGVCL in Vadodara city announce maintenance activity in summer. It is mandatory as the feeders are not serviced for a few months and we are approaching monsoon. This is a regular feature. Each sub-division has multiple feeders and all cannot be serviced in one go. Therefore, the activity is divided over a period of a few days… Since it is a power cut of four hours for maintenance activity only, it can be decided by the local officers.”

Officials of MGVCL said that the utility has no power deficit and is facing no issues in the supply despite the increased demand in summer. A top official said Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd (GUVNL) has been strategising its future plan to deal with the coal deficit as well as the increased demand for power.

“GUVNL has chalked out a plan to enter into 25-year power purchase agreements through competitive bidding in the domestic market. Tenders have already been issued and the bids will be opened by the end of May… The focus is on procuring power through renewable sources, especially solar power from non-park based projects. Two different procurement of 500MW each of solar power are in the pipeline… We have already issued the request for selection and the last date for submission of bids is May 18. At the moment, the state has sufficient stock of coal and power.”