Power outages as Maharashtra faces 4,000 MW shortage

At least three units of Mahagenco generating a total of 1,120 MW have shut down owing to technical glitches.

THE STATE, which has remained load-shedding-free for around three years, saw phases of power outages in several parts between Wednesday and Friday. The Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL), which had earlier estimated a surplus of 2,000-3,000 MW, has fallen short of nearly 4,000 MW, resulting in the outages, said officials.

The outages are attributed to sudden breakdowns in some generation units. At least three units of Mahagenco generating a total of 1,120 MW have shut down owing to technical glitches. One unit each of Adani and Ratan India are producing below their usual generation levels. Moreover, as several units were non-functional owing to annual maintenance, the situation has spiralled out of hand, said MSEDCL officials. A resultant shortage of 4,000 MW has been created.

The distribution company had then resorted to load-shedding in certain parts, a measure it had successfully avoided since 2014. Officials said that the areas with higher bill defaulters were the worst affected as per the company’s load shedding strategy.

The load shedding in the peak of summer has not only inconvenienced domestic consumers but also affected farmers, said Pratap Hogade, chairman of the Maharashtra Electrical Consumer Association. “We will take this up with the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Committee with an official complaint,” said Hogade.

Meanwhile, to counter the sudden shortage, the company has now bought 700 MW of power from Adani and Maharashtra Electricity Generation Company (Mahagenco), a sister company. MSEDCL has also changed the timings for agricultural consumers. Power will now be available to them in two eight-hour long phases between 1am and 7pm the next day.

“The situation is under control now and over the next couple of days, we will discontinue the outages,” an official told The Indian Express on condition of anonymity.

While there are several reasons for the shortage, the official confirmed that the distribution company had not foreseen the rise in demand for this year. “The demand has risen by around 20 percent this year compared to last year. Because of last year’s good monsoon, consumption by the agricultural has grown manifold. The demand is much higher than our projection,” he said.

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This year, the MSEDCL has seen a rise in demand by 2,000 MW over last year. Outside of Mumbai, the current demand is between 18,000 MW to 18,500 MW.

Estimating a surplus, MSEDCL had entered into short-term power supply agreements with states such as Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh. The official said that since UP started drawing power from the distribution company, the situation had worsened.

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