Power surplus Maharashtra faces load-shedding

For the first time in over five years, power surplus Maharashtra is experiencing a sharp - though temporary - energy shortage due to technical reasons, resulting in load-shedding, an official said here on Friday.

Since the past few days, a few power plants in the public and private sector have suddenly developed glitches and simultaneously a few others have been shut down for regular planned maintenance, leading to the gap between increased demand and reduced supplies, the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) official said.

"On Thursday, there was a shortfall of 4000 MW while today (Friday) it came down to 3000 MW as we could get power from one supplier. We hope the situation will completely normalize by next Wednesday or so," MSEDCL spokesperson P. S. Patil told IANS.

On account of the demand-supply gap, the state on Friday imposed load-shedding in the agriculture sector running upto eight hours daily in two-phased and three-phased connections.

Patil added that there has been a sudden spurt in demand of around 2000 MW for power owing to the ongoing heat wave conditions across the state, with the total demand pegged at between 18,000-18,500 MW, against a shortfall of around 3,000-4,000 MW in the past couple of days.

The reasons are stoppage of power stations due to technical problems at Koradi No. 10 (660 MW), Khaparkheda No. 2 (210 MW), Parli No. 8 (250 MW), and privately-owned Adani No. 1 (660 MW), Ratan India No. 4 & 5 (270 each, total 540 MW), and low supplies of around 3000 MW from Adani's and Ratan India's functional power stations.

Additionally, certain other power plants have been shut down for planned annual regular maintenance which has coincided with the (above) facing technical hitches, resulting in the short supply of power availability.

These are Chandrapur No. 7 (500 MW), Koradi No. 6 (210 MW), Tarapur No. 1 & 4 (400 MW each), contributing to the total shortfall of 4000 MW daily.

Despite these technical issues, the official said the government has ensured load-shedding is minimum to avoid inconvenience to the people.

"Maharashtra is a power-surplus state and continues to remain so as the current shortages are only on account of technical problems which we are rectifying on a war-footing. The situation should return to normal by next Wednesday," Patil assured.

The temporary load-shedding has been implemented mainly in agricultural areas or those areas where distribution losses are high against bill recovery of around 3-4 hours daily.

--IANS

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