In Vasai-Virar , everyone's selling inverters to cash in on power cuts

VASAI: Five years ago, 40-year-old Hasad Sheikh was an autorickshaw driver. Today he is a businessman manufacturing inverters. And he is not the
only one to be cashing in on the long hours of load-shedding in the Vasai-Virar belt. As the area braces for another "sweltering and dark' ' summer, several residents have decided to make a living out of load-shedding .

The demand for inverters has far outstripped that for air-conditioners ; this has given rise to a curious but enterprising situation-small-time electricians , autorickshaw drivers and even homemakers are turning into manufacturers of "home-made inverters' ' that sell like hot cakes.

"Often I would have passengers, who would be going home with an inverter. I realised there was good money in it and that inverters were here to stay,'' said Sheikh, who had zero knowledge about electrical appliances. He gathered rudimentary information about the machines from his passengers and after a few days, he headed for Pune for a course in electrical appliances. "My friends and relatives ridiculed me, saying I should continue driving the auto. But today, I have a flourishing business and I operate from home,'' the Bolinj (Virar) resident said. He has also given out his autorickshaw for on rent.

Most homes-both small and big-in the Vasai-Virar belt have installed inverters as the region now faces six to eight hours of load-shedding daily. "Life in summer without an inverter is a curse,'' Vasai resident Ganesh Murthy said. "Almost every electrician here supplies inverters.''

Many homemakers have learnt the technique of assembling an inverter. "My neighbour, Arvind Shukla, is an electrician ,'' said Mumtaz Khan from Vasai. "A year ago, he came to me asking if I could help him assemble an inverter. Initially I was not too sure but in two days, I could actually piece together an inverter.'' Explaining the profit of the venture, Khan said, "The overhead costs are almost negligible and you get paid as soon as the inverter is installed.''

Shukla manufactures anything between 40 and 50 inverters during summer. He attributes the rise in demand to the huge housing complexes that are coming up in Vasai-Virar . "Those with two- and three-bedroom flats are installing inverters that have the capacity to run airconditioners . Those cost up to Rs 10,000,'' Shukla said.

MSEB woes

MUMBAI, June 26: The MSEB is surely a power to reckon with in Kalyan and Dombivili. After power-cuts and low voltage which cause breakdown of TVs and refrigerators leading to unnecessary repairs the citizens have a new problem to contend with now. Inflated power bills. On any given day quite a crowd collects at the MSEB's Joker Talkies office. Almost all of them are clutching their bills where they have been charged in thousands for a month's power consumption. One such unfortunate is Ganesh Kedare who was slapped with a bill of Rs 69,000 for the month of February. All he owns is a black and white 14 inch TV. Since it's only a one-room tenement, a tubelight fulfils the illumination requirements. All his attempts at approaching officials were met with a standard reply, ``Pay Rs 10,000 and then we'll see.'' Now c'mon MSEB, pull up your socks. You need to do better than that.

Tired of power cuts, say residents of Vasai-Virar

Mumbai, July 27 * Shaila Naik, who owns a DTP printing press near Nallasopara railway station, has stopped counting her losses ever since the load shedding has been increased in her area. “I have shut down my photocopy machine and have to turn away customers during power cuts,” she says. Facing load shedding from 6 am to 2 pm and again from 6.00 pm to 10.00 pm in the night, Naik’s business hours have come down to just four hours now. “The inverter is of no use as it does not get charged enough,” she rues.
* Dr Bhuraj Sankhe, who runs a 20-bedded hospital in Nallasopara, is worried about his mounting diesel bill. “The expenditure on generator over these last few months has doubled. I spend Rs 20,000 only on diesel in addition to the electricity bill. I cannot put this burden on my patients as they come from poor background,” he says.

It was frustration over mounting power cuts that prompted the residents of the Vasai-Virar belt to stage a rail roko last week. Hardly 30 kms away from the Shanghai-dreaming Mumbai, the residents of these distant suburbs are going through punishing load shedding schedules, with the authorities struggling to supply the 30 MW that 2.5 lakh customers need. The areas are currently facing load shedding of over eight hours, with some areas going without power for up to 12 hours a day.

“We are tired of this load shedding. It is depressing to see that Mumbai enjoys uninterrupted power supply while we are subjected to over 8 hours of power cuts. We understand the grim power situation in the state, but this kind of power cut is almost inhuman,” says Virar resident Sneha Joshi, who has to adjust her daily chores according the load shedding schedule. “Even after coming home we cannot sleep peacefully. Every night, power goes for an hour.”

Nidan Diagnostics Centre in Virar has another problem: it has to keep patients waiting till the power supply resumes for conducting digital X-rays. “We do not run X-ray machines during load shedding as the generator does not take load and affects the clarity,” says an employee.

With property rates still in the affordable ranges, a large number of people from Mumbai’s congested localities are shifting to these areas. One such new resident is Swardha Bandivdekar, who shifted from Borivali to Nallasopara four months back. “We never knew the load shedding problem was this bad. We now regret taking a flat here,” she says.

No wonder then that there is a huge demand for inverters. Inverter manufacturer Pravin Pathare says that he has sold around 425 inverters in the last six months, each costing Rs 14,000. “As the load shedding hours increase, people turn up for inverters. There are also others whose inverters have crashed and need a new one,” he says.

For those who cannot afford one, enterprising businessman Nikhil Pawaskar from Nallasopara has formed a society, Daivadnya Sahkari Path Pedi, which gives loans for purchasing inverters. “Our monthly instalments are as less as Rs 500 so that even a poor vegetable vendor or a daily wage labourer can afford it,” he says. Since its launch last Sunday, around 12 people have sought loans so far.

MSEDCL executive engineer (Virar-Nallasopara) V B Jagtap says the power utility is helpless. “This region comes under ‘C’ tier where electricity losses are in the range of 35 per cent. The load shedding is necessary to maintain the grid stability,” he says.

There are around 2.5 lakh customers whose electricity requirement is a meagre 30 MW. Old and dilapidated electricity poles, sub-stations and other machinery account for losses to the tune of 15 per cent. Electricity theft also results in loss. “We have received approval for a Rs 100-crore project for replacing the old power equipment and cables which should provide some relief. However, reducing the load-shedding is not possible immediately,” he said, adding people might have to brace for additional cuts if there is a drought-like situation.

No power cuts in Thane this election summer

Mumbai: In most parts of India, be it rural or urban, the rise in temperatures is directly proportional the chances of power outage. But this summer promises to be different, and in no small part because of the elections around the corner. State governments, in an obvious bid to placate voters, are spending huge amounts on expensive power to meet their electricity needs.

In power-starved Maharashtra, despite the demand crossing 15,000 MW and deficit in the 4000-4,500 MW range, officials from the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL) claim there will be no unplanned power outages this season.

Also, in places like Thane, Navi Mumbai and Pune, the MSEDCL hopes to keep the 'zero load shedding' model functional. Zero load shedding was by-and-large observed in these areas till February-end. The ongoing board exams and the High Court directive to the government to ensure that there are no power cuts, have also put pressure on the government.

Sources from the industry say the electricity board of Rajasthan procured 600 MW at as high as Rs12.50 per unit only to meet its power needs of its consumers, who were earlier facing long power cuts. Maharashtra is also procuring available power from the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) at Rs8 to Rs10 per unit.

In the meanwhile, utilities across the country are awaiting a decision from the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) regarding reduction in the unscheduled interchange (UI) charges from the present level of Rs10 per unit to Rs7.35. "This will benefit the utilities procuring power from the IEX since the suppliers were refusing to trade their power at lower rates as they could get a better bargain by selling it at the UI rate. But if this charge is reduced, the rate per unit of tradable power will also go down," said an industry expert.

Consumers from rural areas however will continue to face 10.30 hours to 12 hours of cuts whereas those from other areas will face 2.45 hours to 6.30 hours every day.

"There will be no change in the hours of outages," said an official requesting anonymity.
The official explained that only if the UI charge is lowered can the consumers from Pune, Thane and Navi Mumbai benefit from the zero load shedding model. This will guarantee uninterrupted

Finally, power cuts to reduce in Kalva

THANE: The January agitation by thousands of shopkeepers from Kalva and Kharegaon to protest against the unusually long Planned Load Shedding
(PLS) in their area this year has, at last, turned as successful as they wanted. The Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company (MSEDCL) has bifurcated its Kalva division so as to subject Kalva to minimum PLS hours on par with the city of Thane.

Satish Karpe, the Chief Engineer (CE) in charge of the Bhandup Zone of the company informed Thane Plus that the MSEDCL top brass took the decision on the subject only two weeks back. Karpe informed that the Thane division has been revised to Thane I division and Kalva Division has been split up to remove Kalva area from it and merge with the new Thane II Division.

The City Engineer added that a new Mumbra division has also been created and the new divisions have begun functioning as well. The official informed that the three sub-divisions came into existence some two weeks ago but the MSEDCL did not organise a public event to formally announce the revision of the Thane and Kalva divisions. As a result, the people were not aware of the new divisions coming into force.

The revision of the Kalva divisions has given a pleasant surprise to the residents of the region. The electricity consumers of the region as well as the business community of the area are now being subjected to just around three-and-a-half hours of PLS a day which is half of the PLS hours they used to suffer till the new Thane II division came into force. The new Mumbra division, however, continues to reel under seven hours of PLS every day.

Notably, the erstwhile Kalva division comprised Kalva, Mumbra and Sheel sub-divisions. While Kalva sub division was in losses of below 25 per cent, the MSEDCL suffered losses of more than 60 per cent in Mumbra and Sheel sub-divisions. As a result, the aggregate loss of the Kalva division was above 40 per cent due to which it was subjected to PLS of around six to seven hours a day.

The business community from Kalva were up in arms against the unusually long PLS hours alleging that they were made to pay for the losses in Mumbra and Sheel. The community resorted to a dharna outside the office of the Kalva division to demand that Kalva sub-division be removed from Kalva division and merged with Thane division so that the area is subjected to lesser PLS hours like Thane.

The scale of the agitation compelled the state power firm to take steps to consider the demands. The agitation also shook the politicians off their slumber. An all party agitation was organised outside the office of the Kalva division within days of the agitation of the shopkeepers to demand what the business community of the region had demanded.

The MSEDCL authorities then decided to heave off the Kopri sub-division from the Thane division as well as Kalva sub-division from Kalva division to form the Thane II division. The Thane division, excluding Kopri sub-division, was then treated as Thane I division. The MSEDCL top brass decided to create Mumbra division from the Mumbra and Sheel sub-divisions.

Power crisis on course for Mumbai

MUMBAI: Don't leave th-at air-conditioner on, if you don't need it. In a clear sign of the deepening power crisis, the Maharashtra Electricity
Regulatory Commission (MERC) has decided to issue a public notice urging consumers in Mumbai to cut power consumption by 20% to avoid power cuts during summer.

For once, MERC members are unanimous that the precarious supply situation calls for serious power conservation. The commission may even propose a penalty, such as token disconnection for a day, besides imposing a steep rate for anything more than 80% of normal consumption from industrial, commercial, and residential users if there is no drop in consumption.

On Friday, state energy minister Dilip Walse-Patil called a meeting to tell power companies in Mumbai and the state to come up with conservation plans within a week.

At present, bulk producers Tata Power and Reliance Energy barely manage to generate 2,250 MW against the city's demand of 2,500 MW. Tata Power is drawing roughly 300 MW from the state grid (controlled by MSEB) to meet the gap.

One-hour power cut to continue in city

HYDERABAD: The state government on Thursday attributed the current power crisis to the failure of monsoon rains and said that the one-hour power
cut in the city limits would continue for some more time. "Any additional power cut is generally due to grid failure," legislative affairs minister K Rosaiah said in the assembly.

He said during peak time, the demand was 9398 MW while the supply was 9058 MW. On an average, the demand was over 8000 MW a day. He said that the government proposed to take up 22 power projects with a combined generating capacity of 17,588 MW at an estimated cost of Rs 92,426 crore in the state.

The issue came up during question time in the state assembly on Thursday when MIM member Akbaruddin Owaisi wanted to know the demand-supply gap. Rosaiah said that the government's promise of supplying nine-hour free power to farmers from June 1 was not kept due to poor monsoon rains. At this stage, opposition leader N Chandrababu Naidu charged the state government with making false promises. Responding to this, Rosaiah said the Congress would be in power for the coming five years and that it would implement it any time.

However, taken aback by Rosaiah's statement, chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy intervened and said that he did not believe in going back on the promise. "I am aware that if we do not implement it by November or December, we will lose credibility." He refuted the opposition charge that the government had given the assurance without a proper feasibility study. "We were of the view that hydel generation would begin from June and that it would not be difficult to implement the promise but rains played truant and forced the government to defer the implementation by a few months."

Reddy said they were hopeful of getting 500 MW from VTPS but due to delay in stabilising the new unit the promise could not be kept on time.

The CM said the government was buying power from the Power Trading Corporation at Rs 7.50 to Rs 9.50 per unit while the same if generated by APGenco would cost only Rs 2.25. Hence, efforts were on to increase the generation capacity to 13,000 MW in the next four years, Reddy said.