The Maharashtra authorities has spent greater than Rs 330 crore on purchasing electrical energy from the open market to bridge the demand-supply hole brought on by coal scarcity.
Energy minister Nitin Raut on tuesday mentioned the state is dealing with a shortfall of three,500-4,000MW of electrical energy.
He also blamed the “mismanagement and a lack of planning” on the a part of central PSU Coal India Ltd for it.
Currently, the state needs 17,500-18,000MW of electricity and, with the increase in heat in October, the requirement can be as high as 20,000MW.
Officials said state-owned power plants have a two-day maximum stock and the government will likely have to do a load outage in some areas if supply doesn’t stabilize.
Amid coal crisis, Maharashtra minister says there will be no load shedding in state
“Despite the coal crisis, we have tried to supply electricity to our citizens. Even after the deficiency of coal in the state, only four out of 27 power generation units are currently shut,” Nitin Raut .
“As a minister, I can guarantee that there will be no load shedding due to the coal crisis,” he added.
The minister’s assurance came even as power cut warnings poured in from other states across the country.
On Sunday the coal ministry assured that sufficient dry fuel is available in the country to meet the demand of electricity generating plants.
The ministry also downplayed fear of disruption in the power supply, calling it “entirely misplaced”.
On Monday, Union home minister Amit Shah convened a meeting with power minister RK Singh and coal minister Pralhad Joshi amid coal shortages in power plants.