Power crisis may spark Centre-Maharashtra spat before polls, Maharashtra Election News 2014, Maharashtra Political News 2014, Maharashtra latest news 2014
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- Category: Maharashtra Political News
- Last Updated: Thursday, 22 January 2015 21:02
Power crisis may spark Centre-Maharashtra spat before polls
MUMBAI: Power may play spoilsport this festive season as nearly 75% of the state, excluding some urban areas, may face a minimum of two-hour load-shedding as demand is expected to rise with the monsoon drawing to a close.
The looming power crisis may spark a political battle between the BJP-ruled Centre and Congress-led state government ahead of the assembly polls. Other than Maharashtra, states such as Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat may also face electricity shortage.
Sources said the state cabinet discussed the fallout of the recent stay by the Supreme Court on the proposed tariff hike for private power generators such as Adani, Tata Power and India Bulls, which supply nearly 3,000MW electricity to Maharashtra. These firms also supply power to Punjab, Harayana and Gujarat. The recent ruling by the apex court, saying allocations of coal mines since 1993 are "arbitrary and illegal" has added to the crisis because the thermal power firms are dependent on coal supply.
The power ministry officials told the cabinet that till Thursday the state's power demand was on the lower side, at 13,000MW, due to the ongoing rains across the state. "If this goes up to 16,000MW or beyond in the absence of rainfall, and if private players refuse to generate electricity owing to the recent developments at the Centre, then there could be a shortage of around 4,000MW. In that case, we may have to resort to two to four hours of load-shedding in various parts of the state barring Konkan, Mumbai, Pune, Kolhapur and a few other areas, which register very less commercial and distribution losses," said a source who was present at the meeting.
The officials said that in the absence of rainfall, demand of agricultural consumers would go up. Similarly, festivals such as Ganpati, Navratri and Diwali will push it further. "If we get any decision from the SC over the tariff hike vacating the existing stay, then the crisis may not deepen," said a Mantralaya official.
Sources said that the ministers, including CM Prithviraj Chavan and his deputy Ajit Pawar, discussed the possible solutions such as restarting the gas-based Dabhol power plant as well inking fresh agreements with the private firms. They, however, ruled out the option of reducing supply to agricultural consumers.
src:toi