After announcing an hour-long power cut in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad on Tuesday, Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) has just realised that the move will not help to meet the shortfall. So today, MSEDCL said the one-hour power cut is not enough, Puneites will have to face two hours of load-shedding from Thursday.

According to Chandrakant Gurav, public relations officer, MSEDCL, Pune division, the demand for power today was 800 mega watt (MW) and the city could procure only 575 MW from the State grid in addition to the 145 MW additional power that is purchased for Pune. A total of 720 MW was available on Wednesday but the anticipated shortfall is nearly 80 MW. “Hence, from Thursday some areas in the city will have a power cut of one hour and 40 minutes while others will face a power cut of two hours,” an official release issued here stated.

The city had been spared of load-sheddings since 2006. However despite all the measures taken to ensure power for the citizens, there is a shortfall of 33 MW. With the increasing demand for power, officials have anticipated a shortfall upto 80 MW.

Reacting strongly against this “unilateral” amending of the load-shedding protocol, Sajag Grahak Manch president Vivek Velankar has sent a complaint to the MAHADISCOM managing director. He pointed out that MSEDCL has unilaterally amended the load-shedding protocol announced by the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) two months ago.

The MERC had stated that the protocol was applicable till the demand-supply gap is around 4,500 MW in the State. He alleged that MSEDCL had amended this protocol unilaterally, though the demand supply gap was well below 4500 MW. Pune was kept load-shedding free with 150 MW power for 12 hours additional power. “Now in just one month’s time what exactly happened that the requirement of power to keep Pune load-shedding free, went up by 50 per cent ( 225 MW for 12 hours) is a big question.”