Mumbai to face power cuts

Yesterday’s heavy rain has brought hope to Maharashtra, which has been facing unprecedented power shortage due to lack of rains this season.

However, if the state doesn’t receive more rains in the coming days, Mumbai will lose its status as the country’s only metropolis without power cuts.

The class A cities in the state, Pune, Navi Mumbai, Thane, Nagpur, Nashik and Aurangabad, are already facing power cuts of six hours, while industry is facing outages up to 40 hours a week, a 1.5 times increase compared to last week.

The average gap between availability and demand in July was around 5,200 Mw.

The hydel generation capacity of Tata Power, the largest supplier of power to Mumbai, has got seriously hampered. Till this afternoon, power generation was only 81 Mw of the installed capacity of 444 Mw.

Tata Power and Anil Ambani-controlled RELINFRA are the two major power suppliers to Mumbai. The Mumbai Power Management Group, which comprises three utilities — Tata Power, RELINFRA and BEST — has tied up power for the city till September-end, said sources.