Maharashtra sweating it out; Dabhol working overtime

People in Maharashtra are sweating out blackouts this summer, as the country's highly industrialised state faces a huge power shortfall of 4,500 MW daily.

Even as generation has resumed at the 740 MW block-II of the 2,184 MW Dabhol Power Project, the state is far from bridging the demand-supply gap.

The block-II is producing around 100 MW of electricity for the last four days using oil and is scheduled to shift to naphtha in next 10-15 days.

Meanwhile, people in urban areas suffer without electricity for about four hours a day, while rural folks face up to 12 hours of power cuts.

The dabhol project, which has been rechristened Ratnagiri Gas and Power Pvt Ltd, has been running throughout the day since resuming generation May 1.

"Presently, we are running the plant for 24 hours as this is a very crucial phase for its regeneration. We are trying to stabilise the power generation Once this is done, we will be focusing on increasing the output," said Chandan Roy, CEO, RGPPL.

Roy, who declined to give any timeframe for achieving full production potential (740 mw), also apprehended problems like change in software for running the turbines.

"It is very difficult to give any deadline (for achieving full potential). But, we are aiming at generating most output from the project at early as possible."