Over the last five years, with the gap between demand and supply having reduced from 18 percent to 3 percent Maharashtra is able to supply power to everyone and is on its way to becoming a zero load-shedding State. 82 percent of Maharashtra is already free of power cuts.

Commenting on the efforts taken by the government, Maharashtra Chief Minister Shri Prithviraj Chavan said “I firmly believe that having a strong power sector will ensure all-round and balanced development to the state. Through the efforts of my government, uninterrupted power supply will soon become a reality in Maharashtra”

Major reforms in capacity addition include loss reduction, improvement in demand-side management (single phasing schemes) and separate feeders for agriculture. On a rotation basis, agriculture consumers get power for eight hours in the day and ten hours at night. The agriculture demand is 14500 MW and supply is 13500 MW. The shortfall is carried out through feeders where distribution commercial losses are more than 42 percent.

MahaGenco has added 2500 MW thermal power capacity in the 11th 5-Year Plan while work is on for adding another 3230 MW.  Land acquisition process has begun for the addition of a further 3950 MW thermal power.

Feeder-wise distribution started ensuring increased load shedding in areas where recovery and losses are high. This step will pressurise the local community to reduce losses, thereby increasing recovery prospects that in turn assure uninterrupted power supply.

Single phasing has been implemented in 15,000 villages and independent site feeder to 18,000 villages.  Additionally discounts of 20 percent on electricity charges have also been offered to customers, this includes households, commercial establishments, industries and agricultural customers.

For more information please visit: www.prithvirajchavan.co.in