Electricity supply situation worsens in Maharashtra, minister says power cuts inevitable

Mumbai: In what has added to the woes of power-deficit Maharashtra, a shortfall in supply by private power producers has led to the state electricity distribution utility restarting load-shedding to overcome the gap between demand and supply. Energy minister Nitin Raut, who met chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Thursday, admitted that power cuts were inevitable and blamed the union government for disruptions in the supply of coal which is seen as one of the reasons for the significant demand-supply gap in electricity.

The growth in electricity demand due to the soaring heat, rise in consumption by industrial and agricultural consumers and the nationwide coal crisis has affected coal inventories at state-owned Maharashtra State Power Generation Company Limited’s (MahaGenco) thermal power stations.