Pune zone sees surge in power outages despite high revenue generation
Pune zone recorded top revenue generator for MSEDCL in the state amidst rise in power outage incidents
Pune: Pune zone recorded top revenue generator for the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) in the state amidst rise in power outages with incidents increasing from 1,314 in July 2024 to 16,168 in October in 2024. Consumers faced 2,051 hours of darkness in July, rising to 8,766 hours in October. The power utility uploaded the reliability indices, mandatory as per the rules of Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC), online on Friday.
According to the data, Pune, one of the first places under India’s Smart Cities Mission, generates ₹1,800 to ₹2,000 crore in monthly revenue, the highest in the state.
Despite MERC’s direction to publish reliability index every month, MSEDCL released the data of October on Friday following a complaint filed by civic activists to the former. The last data was uploaded in July 2024.
Pune Circle includes Pune city, Pimpri-Chinchwad, and seven talukas of rural areas (Haveli, Velhe, Maval, Ambegaon, Junnar, Mulshi and Khed) of the district. Ganeshkhind Circle covers Pune city along with nearby industrial areas like Bhosari, Kothrud, Pimpri, and Shivajinagar. Rasta Peth covers all parts of Pune city, except Kothrud and Shivajinagar and Pune rural parts of district.
As per reliability index data published on MSEDCL website, it showed Rasta Peth, which covers maximum Pune city areas, had faced power failure 7,136 times affecting 5,636,165 consumers for 2,725 minutes (45.41 hours).
Of the 1,403,815 consumers under the Ganeshkhind Circle, 4,451 faced power outages of 44.98 hours. Rural Pune saw 4,581 outages, affecting 5,315,440 consumers for 55.69 hours.
In July, the state recorded 23,769 incidents of power outages, resulting in consumers facing 34,993 hours of darkness. By October, the situation had worsened, with the number of incidents surging to 107,088 and consumers enduring 67,815 hours without electricity.
Civic activist Vivek Velankar said, “The immediate upload of October data after complaints shows they had the data ready, but avoided releasing it as it exposed their incompetence. MSEDCL should use the data to improve their services.”
Rajendra Pawar, chief superintendent engineer, MSEDCL Pune Circle, said, “The central office of MSEDCL uploads reliability index data. It is open to all. There is nothing to hide. Due to rapid urbanisation, 22,000 to 25,000 new consumers are added every month in Pune zone. Development works like metro, flyover, drainage line and road repairs also cause power outages.”
