With the monsoon playing truant, the state power utility is compelled to increase the hours of load shedding imposed across Maharashtra.
With the monsoon playing truant, the state power utility is compelled to increase the hours of load shedding imposed across Maharashtra. But not in Mumbai.
If officials from the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) are to be believed, water availability at various power stations has dropped radically, thereby calling for serious precautionary measures.
Nearly 25 per cent of the total water has been used from the Koyna River to generate hydro power. Also the stock of water at various thermal power stations has gone down. “The Chandrapur thermal plant has water available for generation for the next 36 days followed by Parli which has a stock to last for 90 days and Paras will be able to continue to generate even if it does not rain for the next 120 days,” said an official from MSEDCL.
In such a situation, the state power utility is compelled to increase load shedding to make good the rising gap between demand and supply.
The demand for electricity in the last week of July was 11,500MW which increased to 13,000MW in the first week of August and over 15,000MW in the last week of August, whereas the availability has been around 10,000MW to 11,000MW.
Power outages have been increased by an hour and hence consumers who were facing load shedding for almost 1.45 hours to 5.5 hours will be subjected to 2.45 hours to 6.5 hours. Similarly agricultural consumers who were suffering power cuts for 7.5 hours to 10 hours will now have to face cuts for 10 to 12 hours.
While on one hand the state is reeling under severe power crisis compelling the utility to impose increased hours of load shedding, energy minister Sunil Tatkare plans to sell power to Mumbai in the coming future.
The minister hopes that taking advantage of open access, the state, which is likely to become self sufficient by 2012, will be able to sell excess power and satisfy the needs of Mumbaikars as well.
However, industry experts have criticised that in the backdrop of a severe power crunch, the situation does not seem to improve in the near future. “Since the rains have disappeared the utility had to generate power from the Koyna power plant which is normally used to generate power only during emergencies post monsoon. It does not seem possible that the state will get power sufficient in the next five years to even suffice the growing requirement of Mumbai,” said an industry expert.
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