Mumbai: The
electricity authority in Maharashtra will implement 16 hours of
weekly
power cuts for industries from Wednesday, an official said here.
The statement came ten days after imposing daily loadshedding in
urban and rural areas.
The loadshedding for industries will be imposed once a week - on
different days in different areas - coinciding with days when
plants observe their weekly off, an official from the Maharashtra
State Electricity Board said Tuesday.
The latest power-saving measure has been taken in view of an
estimated shortage of around 3,500-4,000 MW power in the past
three weeks.
The residential areas in urban and
rural areas from October 01 are already facing power cuts from 4-5
and 8-10 hours respectively every day.
Power generation in the state has been hit badly on account of
severe disruptions in coal supply due to the Telangana agitation
in neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and floods in Orissa.
This has resulted in Maharashtra power stations getting only
around 12 rakes (trainloads) of coal against the daily
requirements of 24 rakes.
The present demand is around 16,500 MW but the power generation is
around 11,000 MW, necessitating loadshedding of three to seven
hours in urban areas and 11-13 hours in rural areas, hitting
domestic, commercial and agriculture sectors.
This is the first time this year that 'planned loadshedding' has
been imposed in the state which has been showing an improvement in
its power supply position in the past couple of years, mainly
owing to a good monsoon.
The power cuts have angered people, with protests in at least two
areas of Thane in the past two days and in Yavatmal Wednesday.
The coal supply has hit the MAHAGENCO thermal power generation
plants in Parli (Beed), Chandrapur, Koradi, Khaparkheda, Paras -
all in eastern Maharashtra, Nashik and Bhusawal in the northern
parts of the state and Uran in Thane, besides smaller ones across
the state.
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