16-hour outage to hit industrial units

Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited announced that the government has made arrangements to acquire 300 MW and there would be no unscheduled loadshedding in any part of the state.

Move on to get additional coal rakes; standby option of import open: Mahagenco

The Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) on Thursday announced that the government has made arrangements to acquire 300 MW and there would be no unscheduled loadshedding in any part of the state.

However,industrial units have been hit by the 16-hour power cut scheduled from Thursday in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad. The state has been facing a power shortfall owing to coal supply shortfall.

Anant Sardeshmukh,Executive Director General of the Mahratta Chamber of Commerce Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA),said Thursdays are normally weekly offs for industrial units,but several smallscale units started production on Thursday after power supply was restored by 6 pm. The 16-hour loadshedding will hit business at several units.

On Thursday,the system frequency was above 49.5 Herz (Hz) cycles per second from 49.2 Hz earlier,an MSEDCL release said.

The Indian Energy Exchange is also facing a shortage. The power utility said there were fears of blackouts in the rest of the country as coal stock with several thermal plants is expected to run out in a week. Officials said that 64 per cent of electricity is drawn from 86 power plants. The coal available with 44 plants will last only seven days. The disruption in power supply mainly owing to the Telangana agitation is creating havoc in several states with several resorting to power outages for more than four hours a day.

The state has been receiving much lower than its usual supply of coal transported by railways and steps are on to get additional rakes. Mahagenco managing director Subrat Rath said they had requested for additional rakes and hoped the situation improves in a day or two. As a standby option,there are plans to import coal if the situation demanded,he added.

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In MIDC areas of PCMC and Bhosari alone,there are some 5,000 registered industrial units and an equal number of unregistered ones. While most units relying on power from the express feeder have not been affected much,the remaining are staring at huge losses,Sardeshmukh said. The MCCIA has written to the government to resolve the power crisis at the earliest. The Chamber also pointed out that power breakdowns are quite frequent in industrial areas,even at other times.

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