Power cuts return to Vidharba

After what might have been a welcome break, power cuts have returned to Vidarbha. Added to this Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co Ltd (MSEDCL) has expressed its inability to maintain regular supply, to a point that an hour or two of load-shedding in urban areas has become commonplace.

Adding to the chagrin of the already fuming residents, MSEDCL has also stopped informing consumers beforehand, something which was de reguer with MSEDCL's old avataar MSEB. The power utility would release comminiques in major dailies about the impending power cuts and their duration.

Officials on their part claimed load-shedding had in fact never stopped in Nagpur and Vidarbha, and attributed the current power situation to the unusually heavy rains in the state, which led to considerable loss in infrastructure. With the monsoon having abated and agricultural consumption reaching an optimum level, power supply should be regularised in the near future.

Citizens, however, criticised MSEDCL's move to sell electricity to Tata Power for supplies in Mumbai and alleged that this was the reason why they were being forced to endure power cuts.

Tata Power was overdrawing 150 MW from the grid daily to meet Mumbai's peak demand between 10am-7pm. MSEDCL filed a complaint with the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) in this regard.

MERC in its interim order dated August 16 had asked Tata Power not to overdraw from the grid. However, a meeting convened on August 24 between Tata Power and MSEDCL resulted in Tata Power agreeing to purchase electricity at a higher rate. Power cuts started in Nagpur after the agreement was met.

Consumers have also alleged that MSEDCL has succumbed to the pressure of the Mumbai lobby. "It seems MSEDCL worries more about the power situation in Mumbai, while the residents of the rest of Maharashtra are forced to go without power for hours," a local paper reported.

In months during summer when the state was facing an acute power crisis, MSEB had refused to enforce power cuts in those parts of Mumbai where it was the power supplier, the newspaper recalled and said that MSEB even went to the Supreme Court for preventing power cuts to Mumbai. Load-shedding in other parts of the state had been increased to 9 hours daily in rural areas and 4 hours daily in urban areas.