MSEDCL gets govt nod to buy 600 Mw power

Even as the state government has allowed the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) to buy up to 600 Mw of power at any cost and from wherever possible and shows willingness to shell out Rs 1,300 crore for the purpose, all this won't help reduce load shedding hours.

The additional purchase will only stop distress load shedding and unplanned power cuts, said sources in the MSEDCL.

Due to unprecedented surge in demand especially from the agriculture sector, last week MSEDCL had to announce increase in the load shedding hours. Load shedding was increased from three hours to four hours in municipal corporation areas, from six to eight hours in semi-urban areas and from 12 to 14 hours in rural areas.

However, as even these measures failed to check the distress load shedding, earlier this week MSEDCL increased staggering off for various industrial parks from one day to two days.

The power shortage in Maharashtra during the current financial year is expected to remain around 4,500 Mw. Due to good monsoon and booming economy, the demand from agriculture and industrial sector has increased enormously. The gap between demand-supply has increased to almost 5,700 Mw and MSEDCL's load shedding plans went for a toss.

Finally, in order to overcome the situation, the state cabinet today decided to allow MSEDCL to buy power at around Rs 6 to Rs 8 per unit and offered all financial assistance in this regard.

A senior MSEDCL official said, "We will be buying around 600 Mw power for the next four months and it will cost us around Rs 340 crore per month but since we don?t have this kind of financial muscle, we have to depend upon the state government to buy power. Though various options are there, power will mostly come from two independent power producers (IPPs) in Andhra Pradesh," he added..