Two-day power cuts to continue for industry

Despite showing willingness to produce around 400 Mw of power from their captive plant, industrial associations from Maharashtra did not get any assurance from the state government on reducing the power cuts for various industrial parks.

The state has increased the number of days with power cuts for various industrial parks from one day to two in a week.

A meeting of various industrial associations was called by the state government in which representatives of industrial associations from Thane-Belapur, Nashik, Aurangabad, Pune, Nagpur and other industrial townships participated.

Putting forth the state's position before them, state energy minister Dileep Walse-Patil said though they expected a power shortage of around 4500 Mw, it had gone up to 5,700 Mw due to increase in demand from both industry and agriculture sectors.

However, he added that this was only temporary and the state would go back to the earlier practice once the power supply increased.

Industry representatives pointed out that this would affect the productivity by around 16 per cent and hit the small and medium industry.

They offered to make available nearly 400 Mw of power through various captive power plants, if Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) was ready to give them affordable rates. This, they suggested, could be consumed by the industry itself or pumped into the grid.

Though power secretary Jayat Kawale welcomed the idea and said if they get 400 Mw and another 600 Mw from independent power producers (IPPs) in Andhra Pradesh, they could go back to the original schedule, MSEDCL sources pointed out that power from captive sources would be expensive and since they would not get any assistance from the state government, they would need the permission of the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Authority (Merc).

A committee under the chairmanship of Kawale has been appointed to work out the modalities on the purchase of power from industry.

The committee is expected to finalise its proposal by the end of week and approach the Merc early next week, the sources added.

The industry representatives suggested the government should waive the fix charges for two days, and instead of going in for power cuts for 16 hours on two separate days, it should opt for continuous power cuts of 32 hours.