Mumbai: Generation of electricity has been affected by a shortage of coal, adding to the problems in generation, transmission and distribution, officials with the Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) said on Saturday.
A senior employee at the Maharashtra State Power Generation Company (MAHAGENCO) said they were helpless due to lack of coal. “We are receiving only 20 railway rakes of coal for our power plants, compared to the 32 rakes we were receiving earlier. We will not be able to meet the State’s power demands until we receive 1,00,000 metric tonnes (MT) of coal every day.”
The State gets its coal supply from four subsidiaries of Coal Indian Limited (CIL) in Hyderabad, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra. “To be honest, heavy rainfall has led to inundation of most of the coal mines, resulting in a nationwide shortage. The situation is not limited to our State,” the MAHAGENCO employee said.
The Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (MSEDCL), responsible for last-mile distribution, said there was a shortage of 800MW on October 7. It said the daily average demand is 16,500 MW but only 15,700MW was supplied. Power plants too reported lower-than-normal generation due to the coal shortage.
An MSEDCL official said, “As MAHAGENCO’s production has fallen, we have bought 790MW of power from other sources as an emergency measure to reduce the demand-supply gap. As of now, only E,F and G zones have adequate supply; the rest are struggling to cope with the situation.”
Infra constraints
Experts, however, say the problem lies in the State government’s failure to increase generation capacity. Five years ago, MSEB had forecast a surplus of 6,000MW (assuming projected demand at 24,000MW and supply at 30,000MW). The situation has remained unchanged, and an average deficit of 3,000MW has persisted for the last five years.
Power activist Pratap Hogade said generation capacity hasn’t increased as per expectation.
“There is another issue here: if generation is below capacity, it means industries in the State are not growing. Population growth is only one aspect of it. Successive governments have failed to recover dues amounting to ₹30,000 crore, while distribution losses are on the rise.”
