No load-shedding during Diwali: Mahadiscom

Claiming that the power generation situation is likely to come back to normalcy, state -run distribution company Mahadiscom today said it is taking all measures to ensure there is no load-shedding during Diwali.
Terming Maharashtra as a power surplus state, Mahadiscom' director Vishwas Pathak said non-availability of coal resulted in shortage of energy supply that led to load- shedding in the state.
Stating that Maharashtra has an installed capacity of around 38,000 MW, from Mahagenco and private players, and long-term power purchase agreements to the tune of 31,000 MW, he said the demand is just around 18,000-23,000 MW.
"However, untimely rains and misjudgement in maintaining surplus coal stock, led to fall in power generation which forced us to resort to load-shedding in many parts of the state. But we have now tied-up for buying power to ensure there is no load-shedding in the state," he said.

Generally a surplus stock of 21 days is maintained, Pathak said adding that this time it was only of two days.
"We had to resort to load-shedding as generation declined due to insufficient coal supply. Yet, we managed to buy excess of power from the central grid to meet the demand," he said.

Explaining the financial unviability in maintaining surplus coal stock he said, "We cannot keep buffer coal inventory as it increases its holding cost. It not only locks up funds, but it is also difficult to manage its storage especially in situations where we experienced untimely rains."
However, taking lessons from this situation, we will ensure we have surplus buffer stock to ensure we do not have to resort to load-shedding because of unavailability of coal.

Mahadiscom currently has 2.40 crore consumers on its network, including residential, commercial and agriculture.