Maharashtra's power struggles may not end soon

The coal shortage faced by electricity producers across the country has impacted the stateowned generation and distribution companies As a result the state is enforcing emergency power cuts in regions where the monthly bill recovery is low and distribution losses high However this has led to internal strife between both companiesmdashMahagenco and MahavitaranMahagenco the state electricity generation firm says it should not be blamed for the mess as it has been performing maximum despite fuel shortage and financial constraints even while the state distribution utility Mahavitaran has not paid it regularly and failed in planning gross power procurement in the wake of increased demand According to Mahavitaran it faces an average deficit of 4700MW Mahavitaran has blamed its financial woes on dues to be recovered from the government and other entities At 330 pm on Friday the state companyrsquos scheduled demand was 22773 megawatts but it increased to 24130MW catered According to Mahavitaran there was load shedding of 600700 MW in the morning in the selected areas but no cuts in the rest of the day The outages were avoided by buying additional power from CGPL Tata Gujarat 760MW and NTPC 673MW till June 15 Mahavitaran says it faces an average daily deficit of 4700MW File picAround the same time Mumbairsquos demand was about 3000 MW but the capitalrsquos three private companies and Mahavitaran which caters to the eastern suburbs did not force power cuts Mumbai is unlikely to face any eventuality unless for an emergency breakdown like the pastNo relief for the rest of stateThe electricity demand and supply situation in the stateowned licensed area is unlikely to recover any time soon said independent power expert Ashok Pendse He said the jump in demand is attributed to the increased consumption due to the rising mercury ldquoThere have been instances of the state having registered higher demand than this but now there are a number of factors that are impacting the generation and distributionrdquo he told midday adding that the immediate solution was a drop in the rising temperatureWith the month of May expected to be even hotter the planners in the state company are scrambling to make arrangements to procure more power from outside Mahavitaran said on Friday that Mahagenco has been supplying much less than contracted supply of 9540MW and the National Thermal Power Corporation NTPC has also reduced supply it had agreed for It added that the impact has created an average daily shortfall of 4700MW which is partially mitigated with 1433MW that comes together from CGPL and NTPC It said an additional 15002000MW is being bought from the open market where the rate per unit is capped at R12 by the Central regulator Pendse said NTPC gives maximum during the peak demand and reduces production to conserve coal in the interim period Other contractual procurement comes from independent power producers in Maharashtra and the Central exchange which allots states their share from national projects Mahavitaran gets 6000 to 9000MW from the CentreMahagenco not solely responsibleMahagenco has been operating on short stock for at least a year now ldquoIdeally Mahagenco should have 30 days stock in advance but it doesnrsquot have it for a long timerdquo observed Pendse adding that Mahagenco doesnrsquot get the money from Mahavitaran on a regular basis ldquoWhen Mahavitaran doesnrsquot have the money Mahagenco also faces a financial crunch and canrsquot pay for coalrdquo he statedldquoMahagenco cannot increase the production all of a sudden We are not the sole supplier to Mahavitaran which should also tap other sources instead of harping on the coal shortagerdquo said a company insiderOn April 14 midnight Mahagencorsquos various stations had coal stock that would last for 1 to 6 days The supply gets augmented but the company has not been able to stock coal for the future Tendering for purchasing coal for Nashikrsquos 250MW unit is expected to be over by next month When thermal generation doesnrsquot suffice to mitigate the deficit hydro projects are run Maharashtrarsquos Koyna project has been under duress because it is operated as and when needed putting its water stock under threatPolitical blame gameEven as energy minister Nitin Raut blamed Coal India and Railways for shortage and delayed transport of coal industry sources said the shortage wasnrsquot entirely to be blamed for power cuts Raut said the distribution company wasnrsquot paid dues running into several thousand crores of rupees by the state government departments Opposition leader Devendra Fadnavis wondered if the Congressruled states didnt have power cuts why was Maharashtra subjected to outages He said it was because of the failure of the MVA government which was masking its own faults by blaming the CentreMahavitaran said Bihar Uttar Pradesh Madhya Pradesh Gujarat Haryana Rajasthan Karnataka Punjab Telangana Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka were also enforcing power cuts Union minister of state for coal and railways Raosaheb Danve said early this week that the state had faltered in placing an order for the railways rakes required for transporting coal from the mines to generation stations He said the country produces 8037 of its total requirementThe union power ministry has allowed generation companies to import coal to blend it with domestic coal It also allowed 2537 tolling ndash a system that allows a company in the vicinity of mines to use coal linkage of others to save time in transporting the fuel The electricity thus produced is procured by the distribution firm which has agreement with the company whose coal linkage is usedBut Pendse said the price of imported coal was five times higher than the domestic coal ldquo10371537 imported coal can be blended with domestic supply But the cost and the time taken to import it will not be feasible for financially distressed companiesrdquo he said adding that electricity can be bought from solar power producers who donrsquot have power purchase agreements 3000 MWMumbairsquos electricity demand on Friday