In view of rapidly increasing demand for power, the state-run power distribution company MahaVitaran on Wednesday forced to increase the load shedding to 1,900 MW from 1,357 MW which was reported on Tuesday. MahaVitaran claimed that the load shedding was done across Maharashtra except for Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, and Pune for two to three hours. It has denied the media reports about 8 hours of load shedding done in some of the districts.
A Mahavitaran officer told the Free Journal, ‘’Today 1,900 MW of load shedding was done in Maharashtra in the wake of rise in power demand and dip in the generation for want of coal. The state’s demand was reported at 29,600 MW of which 7,200 MW was met by the state-run MahaGenco while the balance power was procured from the central sector, independent power producers and power exchanges.’’ He said the MahaGenco, with a total generation capacity of 9,540 MW, daily requires 1,80,000 metric tonnes of coal but it on Wednesday received 1,30,000 metric tonnes of which 1,24,000 metric tonnes was used to generate 7,200 mw during peak period and 6,800 mw during off peak period.
‘’Even though there was a shortfall of 1,200 MW from MahaGenco, the MahaVitaran is carrying out load shedding of 1,900 MW in the state,’’ admitted the MahaVitaran officer. He predicted that MahaVitaran will be left with no option to increase the load shedding up to 3,000 MW if the power demand rises to 30,000 MW or more.
A senior officer from the state energy department said MahaGenco has a proper forecasting system and accordingly pursues its demand for coal with the coal companies so that generation is not affected. However, he noted a similar forecasting mechanism is missing in MahaVitaran as it needs to implement a proper plan during such a crisis.
