Meeting to seek power crisis solution !

Meeting to seek power crisis solution - Express India

Meeting to seek power crisis solution
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Express News Service
Posted online: Sunday , August 24, 2008 at 03:10:04
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Pune, August 23 There is hope for the city on the power front, as state Energy Minister Dilip Walse-Patil on Saturday said the power situation in Pune might improve after a joint meeting on the Pune model of zero load shedding to be held in Mumbai on Monday.

In July, the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (MSEDCL) imposed load shedding owing to the drought-like situation. The city had to go through six hours of load shedding daily. However, after the sufficient rains in August, the MSEDCL last week officially declared a ‘no load shedding’ situation again. However, it continued the load shedding from the next day, saying Tata Power Trading Company Limited (TPTCL), the franchisee appointed for providing additional power, did not assure firm contracted power to them. As a result, the city is still reeling under load shedding.

Against this scenario, the state Power Minister has assured that the Monday meeting might bring something positive for the city. From Pune, state council chairman of CII, Pradeep Bhargava, Shantanu Dixit of Prayas Energy Group and Vivek Velankar of Sajag Nagrik Manch will attend.

Stressing that energy conservation should be the new mantra, Walse-Patil said the state government would add another 6,500 MW through new power generation plants in the next three-four years, with a total investment of Rs 18,000 crore. The power addition is also going to come from private players, including Jindal Power, Tata Power Company and Adani Group, which are going to set up power bases in Ratnagiri, Mumbai and Gondia in Vidarbha respectively, Walse-Patil said.

“Industry consumes 31 per cent of the total energy. However, we have high potential in conserving energy. The government of India enacted Energy Conservation Act in 2001 and Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) has been appointed the agency for that in the state. The installed power capacity of the state is 15,000 MW, while the daily shortage is 4,000-5,000 MW,” he said.

He said the state was also working towards the usage of non-conventional energy. “We have sanctioned three projects in this regard,” Walse-Patil said, adding that if the Indo-US nuclear deal goes through, Maharashtra would get 10,000 MW of power.