Power demand may rise by 5,000 mw in five years

The Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co (MSEDCL) has estimated that the state's demand for power would go up by 5,000 mw in the next five years.

To cope up with the increased demand, the Power Finance Corporation of India (PFC) as well as the Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) have shown willingness to finance MSEDCL's ambitious upgradation programme.

Considering the fact that the state currently faces a shortage of about 3,000-4,000 mw during peak hours, the additional projected demand of 5,000 mw would make the matter worse. Currently, the demand for power reaches 13,000-14,000 mw during peak hours.

In order to meet the current deficit, MSEDCL is looking forward to the restarting of the Dabhol plant which is expected to contribute nearly 2,000 mw by August next year. In addition, MSEDCL expects the three generation plants of Maharashtra Electricity Generation Co (Mahagenco) to become operational by April next year. The three plants based at Paras, Parali and Ghatghar have a capacity to generate 250 mw each.

Apart from this, the state has signed a power purchase agreement with the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) for 2,700 mw and expects to get power from next year onwards. The power distribution company is also planning to float tenders for the purchase of another 4,000 mw.

Speaking to Business Standard, Sanjay Bhatia, managing director of MSEDCL, said, "We are trying to improve our distribution system by adopting a two-fold approach-proactive & preventive maintenance and by upgrading and modernising the distribution system."

He admitted that changing from reactive to proactive maintenance and altering workers' attitude are not easy. But the organisation is holding workshops at subdivisional level to impart reorientation to workers. He claimed that he alongwith senior officers have been attending such workshops.

The company is also preparing a load demand profile and projections for the next five years for each sub-division. According to Bhatia the load factor projection exercise, financed by PFC and REC, is perhaps the first ever exercise of such nature undertaken by any distribution company in the country.

Though the exercise is in the final stages of completion, according to rough projections, the state's power demand would increase by 5,000 mw over the next five years. This requires around Rs 3,000 crore to renovate the distribution system.

Bhatia added that while some of the upgradation projects will be given on a turnkey basis, other projects will be handled by MSEDCL.