Maharashtra's urban population, spread over Thane, Navi Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur and other towns and district headquarters, could have been
spared the daily trouble of two-and-a-half hours of load-shedding, if the DF government had replaced five old and ailing power-generation plants in the state at the right time.
The frequent breakdowns and the plants' inability to generate power to their full capacity have led to a shortfall in the state's overall power-generation capacity by between 900 MW and 1,000 MW. Experts estimate that an additional 1,000 MW in capacity would have helped to reduce load-shedding by over two-and-a-half hours every day.
The state is struggling to provide enough power, which is also getting costlier by the day, but its five major generation units at Parali, Paras, Bhusawal, Nashik and Koradi (near Nagpur) are approaching their expiry date and will be discarded over the following three years.
"It hurts. We lack the vision. We should have planned and executed it long back. They are already close to 40 years old, the guaranteed age is only 25 years, and hence their capacity is low. This is also one of the reasons for a peak-hour shortfall of 3,500 MW,'' a senior official of the state energy department said.
However, the power plants at Koradi, Parali, Paras and Bhusawal are expected to be replaced in the next few years; they promise over 2,700 MW of power, more than double the existing capacity of these units. But the state will have to put up with power cuts and shortage till they are replaced.