Rising heat, coal shortage lead to power cuts

9/10/17

Soaring temperatures and a shortage of coal in the country has pushed up the city’s power requirements, leading to frequent power cuts from the first week of October.

The State government is struggling to cope with a shortage of 3,000 mw of electricity every day across major cities in Maharashtra, officials said.

The worst-affected areas are in and around Mumbai, and are reporting a sudden spike in demand. The Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) has announced load-shedding in parts of Bhandup, Kalyan and Navi Mumbai during morning and evening peak hours.

Users in these areas were sent several messages to this effect. One such SMS said: “start of load-shedding daily in Panvel urban areas (which include Kharghar node) from October 5 onwards. Time of load-shedding would be 6 a.m. to 7.30 a.m. in the morning and afternoon 1 p.m. to 2.30 p.m.”

In a statement issued on Thursday, the MSEDCL said the State’s demand for electricity during the day peak hours was 16,300 mw, with load-shedding of 800 to 900 mw. In the evening peak hours, the demand was 14,500 mw with load-shedding of 1,100 mw, the statement said.

Senior officials said load-shedding has reached border areas of Mumbai due to a shortage of coal and rise in demand.

The cuts were so far limited to cities like Pune and Nagpur, which have seen load-shedding since 2011. “We have all along said there is limited availability of coal, and the temperatures in these regions are generally high. This results in power cuts,” said a senior MSEDCL official.

“Today we observed load-shedding in areas of Navi Mumbai, Kalyan and Bhandup. The total shortage was 2,000 mw. Areas in Pune, Nagpur and Nashik also saw power cuts,” said an official.

The MSEDCL said several units in the State saw no power generation on Thursday due to unavailability of coal, while many others generated power much below actual capacity.

Source: The Hindu

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