‘Power crisis to continue for now; Centre looking to increase imported coal blending to 20 pc’

Dinesh Waghmare, principal secretary of Maharashtra’s energy department, speaks about the power crisis faced by the state, the steps being taken to ensure uninterrupted supply of coal, and how the state is preparing itself to insulate its power grids from cyber attacks:

Due to the coal shortage there is a power crisis in the state. Can you give us a brief on the problems you faced?

For the past one month, there has been an increase by several folds in the demand of power compared to last year during the same period when the demand was 21,000 megawatt. Now, we are handling 28,000 megawatt. This is mostly because of spurt in commercial and industrial activities.