MSEDCL uploads reliability indices after complaint by civic activist

Following complaint by civic activist to the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) on July 11, the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) published the reliability indices for February and March 2024 on their website the next day.

The data shows a decline in service quality. In January 2024, there were 13,001 power outages due to technical failures across the state, affecting 1.72 crore consumers for a total of 23,434 hours. By March 2024, the outage count rose to 16,442, affecting about three crore consumers for 28,076 hours.

The Pune zone, one of the top revenue generators for the power utility, reported rise in power outages. In January 2024, there were 687 incidents, causing 22 lakh consumers to experience 1,496 hours of darkness. By March 2024, the figure touched 891, affecting 31 lakh consumers for 2,472 hours.

Civic activist Vivek Velankar said, “According to MERC rules, MSEDCL must publish reliability index every month, but the latter had not posted the numbers on its website since January 2024. Only after filing a complaint was the data uploaded within a few hours. It suggests that the details were ready, but not released and reveals the true state of the power utility operations.”

Rajendra Pawar, chief engineer, MSEDCL, Pune Circle, said, “We submit data to the main office and they are supposed to upload the information. There is no need to hide any details.”