The Hindu Business Line : Maharashtra faces yet another power crisis

Power woes
Overdrawing was the reason for recurring incidents of electricity failure in several parts of Maharashtra, said State government officials.

Mumbai, Jan. 25 The power situation in Maharashtra is again at a crisis point.

On Thursday the State's Energy Secretary flew to New Delhi seeking intervention from the Union Power Minister and Power Secretary to stop overdrawing of electricity by the northern region from the national grid.

Unscheduled load shedding has increased in Maharashtra due to lack of grid discipline by northern region, said Mr Dilip Walse Patil, Energy Minister of Maharashtra, speaking to the media on Thursday.

"Today there is enough water for agriculture but the farmers cannot pump the water due to intermittent power supply; the agricultural output of the State is being affected," the Minister said.

This overdrawing was the reason for the recurring incidents of electricity failure in several parts of Maharashtra, said State government officials.

If the problem was not solved immediately, then the power grid in the State could collapse, and this could have a cascading effect on the neighbouring States, they said.

Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Bihar and Haryana constitute the Northern region. Mr Patil said the State Government had already written to the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission on January 10 seeking the Commission's intervention to maintain grid discipline. But the situation has not improved till date, he added.

Mr Patil said that on January 18, the northern region was scheduled to draw power of 679 MW but it actually drew 1451 MW. Overdrawing of power affects the frequency at which power should be ideally transmitted. This was an alarming situation, he said. The frequency should be maintained at 49.3 hz for grid stability. In January, the frequency dipped below 49.3 hz on 425 occasions in the State, compared with just twice in January 2006. This lead to unscheduled load shedding in rural areas, raising discontent among the people, he said.

Power expert and advisor to the Maharashtra State Planning Commission, Mr Ashok Pendse, said that other than the southern States, the whole country was now connected to a single grid. To maintain stability of the grid, the amount of power pumped into the grid and the amount of power drawn should be equal. But the northern States were overdrawing making the system unstable, he said.

"Overdrawal of power affects the turbines of the generating stations. And if it continues then the power station can shut down. It takes a minimum of four hours to restart a power station. Power overdrawal can plunge into darkness five States at a time," he said.

Mr Patil added that the instances of unscheduled load shedding increased dramatically after August 2006, when Gorakhpur in eastern Uttar Pradesh and Muzaffarpur in Bihar were connected through a high-capacity line; this raised the capacity of the northern region to draw excess power, he said.