Mumbai faces power cuts

Close on the heels of last month's floods and the near-epidemic that followed, Mumbai is now facing load shedding during peak hours.

The city may have to face up to six hours of load shedding, if its peak requirement of 150 Mw is not met by Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company and Maharashtra State Transmission Company.

The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission on Tuesday issued an interim order, restraining Tata Power Company from "overdrawing" power from the grid and "operate strictly in accordance with the instructions given by the State Load Dispatch Centre".

The order was issued in response to a petition filed by the MSEDC and MSTC, stating that TPC should be restrained from overdrawing from the grid during peak load.

Mumbai has a peak load of 2500 Mw with Tata Power supplying 1850 Mw and Reliance Energy, 500 Mw. The 150 Mw shortfall is met by MSEDC.

Over the past few years, the load in the city has been peaking by 5 per cent annually, and TPC has been forced to draw additional power from the grid.

The order places the TPC in a bind with respect to its ability to meet this rising demand. This is because the order states clearly that TPC cannot draw power from the grid beyond the "normal exchange of power", taking into consideration grid stability and frequency as well as the availability of power after meeting the demands of MSEDC's other customers.

The MERC order does not, however, impose a limit on how much power can be drawn by TPC.

Though TPC executives refused to comment, industry sources pointed out that TPC might have to seriously look at alternate sources for meeting its peak load demand in order to avoid load shedding in the city.

Options range from sourcing power from another power producer to setting up a fresh capacity to meet the peak load and activating captive capacity in and around Mumbai to meet the demand in the short term.

Industry sources also pointed out that sourcing additional peak hour capacity will push up the cost of power in the city.

According to MERC Chairman Pramod Deo, TPC has identified 175 Mw of power that can be sourced from the southern grid. TPC is also considering bringing online Unit 4 of its Trombay Thermal Power plant by next summer.

This will enhance the utility's generation capacity by 120 Mw. MERC has already given permission for refiring the unit.

Although Reliance Energy does not draw power directly from MSEB, the customers of the power utility will also feel the pinch of today's MERC order.

Industry sources said Tata Power could reduce supply to Reliance Energy -- the worst-case scenario might be no supply at all. "It will create a huge power cut in the supply area of Reliance Energy as it draws more than half of its requirement from Tata Power," they added.

Reliance Energy draws 750-800 Mw of power every day from Tata Power and produces nearly 500 Mw at its Dhanu plant.