The closure of several government and non-government establishments due to BR Ambedkar's birth anniversary on Thursday came handy for the state-run MahaVitaran to manage the power demand by carrying out a load shedding of 1,500 MW. For the MahaVitaran’s consumers, it was a pleasant surprise as there was no load shedding from 7.30 am to 10 am as it had received 700-800 MW. However, the demand surged to 24,600 in the afternoon that forced the MahaVitaran to carry out load shedding of 1,500 MW which was for two to three years across the state except for Mumbai, Thane, Navi Mumbai, Pune. The peak demand has been hovering between 28,500 MW and 28,800 MW.
MahaVitaran had shed 1,900 MW of load on Wednesday and 1,357 MW on Tuesday. It has been projected that if the power demand continues to increase rapidly and if it crosses 30,000 MW then the load shedding of 3,000 MW is inevitable. However, Energy Minister Nitin Raut claimed that it was not the entire Maharashtra which would be shut down saying that the MahaGenco’s thermal power generation plants can work with full capacity if the Centre quickly removes bottlenecks in the coal supply including deployment of more rakes.
The MahaVitaran, which is under attack for the relaunch of load shedding after October 2012, on Thursday started a war room to keep a close watch on power demand and supply and disseminate information to the consumers.
The MahaVitaran Chief Public Relations Officer Anil Kamble told the Free Press Journal, ‘’MahaVitaran was successful in meeting the morning power demand of 22,500 MW which later increased to 24,600 MW. The Government of India undertaking NTPC will stat supply of 550 MW from Friday onwards. The power demand is likely under control due to public holidays and week end.’’ He said the MahaVitaran will set up war rooms in every district.
