Mumbaikars have reported power outages in several parts of the city and its adjoining suburbs. Users took to Twitter and complained about how their schedule for the day ahead has been impacted due to the power outage. They also talked about how Adani Electricity’s customer service was not effective.
Some parts of Mumbai like Bhandup and Mulund and the adjoining areas of Thane and Dombivili faced a power outage from around 10 am on April 26. A user tweeted, “The one thing that people in Mumbai often took pride over the rest of the nation: Steady electricity supply. Is that also history?”
Another user tagged Adani Electricity and write, “Till when will the power be restored. We haven’t had any sleep all night and it is now a working day ahead as we are working from home. Kindly let us know till when the electricity will be up again.”
Another user said, “No lights the entire night. We’re exhausted. It’s a working day, and nobody has gotten any sleep. Adani Electricity, this is really upsetting. It’s a heatwave- you need to be better prepared!!”
Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Love Sonia fame Amar Butala pointed out that there has been a power outage in Khar West for 4 hours and that the customer service of Adani Electricity is not effective and also shared a screenshot.
Butala wrote, “On Monday, Adani Electricity shut down power for 3 hours in Khar west. Tuesday night it’s been gone 4 hours and counting! Their only response crappy bots! Adani Power stop making the lives of your customers miserable! Who else misses Tata Power?”
Meanwhile, Adani Electricity Mumbai said that there was a double cable fault in the Khar-9 substations between Khar and Bandra early this morning. 6 substations have been restored and repair work is underway for remaining 3 substations.
The reasons for the outage, which comes at a time when Maharashtra is facing an acute power deficit and widespread coal shortages are being reported all over the country, were not immediately known, as per news agency PTI. The financial capital does not usually face mandatory power cuts as part of load shedding, which entails compulsory power cuts in select areas, but faced troubles like a disruption that lasted upto 18 hours in October 2020.
This load shedding is being carried out in urban and rural areas, according to the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company. MSEDCL is resorting to load shedding to bridge the growing demand for power and shortages of coal, which have resulted in a deficit of 2,500-3,000 MW in power.
Here’s what we know about coal shortage in India so far:
1. Ministry of Railways has deployed additional rakes to transport coal to power plants earlier this week. As per the ministry, there has been a 10 per cent increase in freight by efficiently mobilsiing resources after April 2022.
2. Indian Railways has prioritised the movement of coal to long-distance power plants as well. Average lead of coal trains has increased by 7 per cent in the last 5 days as compared to average leads between April 1-10.
3. Industry body Assocham has suggested making coal imports duty-free, ensuring greater availability of railways rake to transport dry fuel and different rate of diesel for captive generators for dealing with power supply issues amid heatwave.
4. Assocham Secretary General Deepak Sood said, “Although the import duty on coal is 2.5 per cent at present, we would urge scrapping the duty for now in view of the pressing situation.”
5. Earlier this month, coal inventories hit the lowest pre-summer levels in nine years leading to power outages across the country.
6. Brokerage house Nomura also has warned in a recent report that if there is no positive news with regards to coal supplies, it could lead to a stagflationary shock which India cannot afford. The Nomura report furthermore stated that nearly 100 out of 173 power plants have critical coal stocks, less than 25 per cent of normative levels.
7. Coal Secretary AK Jain told news agency PTI that the current power crisis has been caused due to the sharp decline in electricity generation from different fuel sources and not due to non-availability of domestic coal.
8. Jain explained, “It’s not a coal crisis but a power demand-supply mismatch… The power demand has registered an upswing as the economy has bounced back, summers have arrived early and the [prices] of gas and imported coal have shot up sharply.”
9. He also reassured people that the government is undertaking a slew of measures to enhance total power supply in the country.
10. He further said, “Some of the thermal power plants in India were built along the coast so that imported coal could be used, brought from nearby countries like Indonesia… But with the sharp rise in the price of imported coal they have reduced the imports.”
11. Coal India has produced 25 per cent more in the first half of April in comparison to same period in 2021 and dispatches were also up by upto 25 per cent.
12. Coal minister Prahlad Joshi had also said that 72.50 MT of coal is available at various sources of CIL, Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) and coal washeries at present.
(With inputs from agencies)