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- By Parinda News Bureau, February 28, 2006, 11:35 IST
Mumbai: The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) on Monday urged power distributors and consumers to save power by 20 per cent in March or the power cuts would become a reality from April.
The order for load shedding may be passed on March 2. The regulator has asked die state's electricity transmission arm Mahatransco to submit an affidavit on availability of a corridor to bring additional electricity in the State, which includes progress of its capacity doubling work on the Chandrapur-Bhadrawati line.
During the day-long public hearing in this regard which saw all three electricity distributors_Reliance Energy, Tata Power and BEST_pre-senting their side of the story to the regulator. Tata Power said the city is presendy facing a shortage of 250-MW. However, in view of increase in power demand during summer, it is looking forward to getting around 50 MW electricity from its projects in Jharkhand and is in talks with Jindal Power to get an additional 150 MW of electricity.
The State is presently facing a daily average shortage of 3,000-3,500 MW of electricity, which has' resulted in loading-shedding of 6-12 hours in rural as well as urban parts except Greater Mumbai. The State Government has already expressed its inability to provide additional electricity to the city and asked citizens to reduce power consumption. The electricity distributor companies also presented their plans in this regard to the regulator.
The Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) has clearly said that it will not be able to contribute to the 50MW shortfall estimated during peak months of April to May even though it purchases electricity from other states or utilities.
All the three licensees Reliance Energy Ltd., Tata Power Company Ltd (TPCL). and the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) made presentations indicating various measures for regulating the actual consumption to meet the projected availability of power, including but not limited to the following load regulation measures in Mumbai.
However, MSEB has maintained that it will not be able to give 100MW electricity to TPC. "MSEB will not be able to supply extra power to TPC because we are already purchasing Kawas power at Rs 7.26", said Manohar Badge of MSEDCL. MERC has asked MSETCL to submit an affidavit by Tuesday stating why it has taken so long to commission the Chandrpur-Bhadravati double circuit line.
Kshatriya maintained that call centres should be included in essential services apart from hospitals, BARC and defence. Apart from licensees, some hoarding associations made presentations before MERC. Mumbai Hoarding Owners' Association and Outdoor Advertising (Media) Fraternity maintained that the commission was unnecessarily targeting hoardings when it consumes hardly 0.05 percent of the total supply. 'The hoardings consume only 15,000 units per day.
We are ready for conserving electricity but we are the major players in spreading awareness. Just because we are visible the commission should not target us", said an official from the hoarding association. The Bharatiya Janata Party and Communist Party of India (Marxists) also made presentations in the interest of the consumers maintaining that the city being a commercial and financial hub cannot afford to go under darkness.
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