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After about five days of drastic power cuts, the supply situation in Maharashtra is slowly returning to normalcy.
On Tuesday, the total power in the grid was at 12,500 MW. When the crisis broke out it was less than 11,000 MW.
An additional 1,500 MW has given a big relief to the villages in the State, which have been reeling under acute power shortage. Some of the tier two and three towns have been without power cuts since Monday morning.
The Telangana bandh, coupled with flooding in Coal India mines in Orissa, led to acute coal shortage in Maharashtra also.
It took a major toll on the power generation capacity of thermal power stations. In some power stations the generation dipped by as much as 50 per cent.
The Maharashtra State Power Generation Company (MahaGenco), the largest power producer in the State, which is controlled by the State Government, had pumped up hydropower generation from Koyna plant from 200 MW to about 1000 MW to meet the shortfall.
A senior MahaGenco official told Business Line that the water which was stored in Koyna reservoirs for summer months for agriculture, has been partially used for power generation.
“It is a big gamble, I hope we sail through the summer months,” he said.
Maharashtra is not new to power shortages as it has struggled with acute power shortages over the last decade.
In the last two years, the power situation had improved considerably due to revival of the Dabhol power project and a number of private power projects supplying power to the grid.
Until the present crisis, the load shedding in the State was minimal with zero load shedding for industries.
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