Mid-day

Mumbai, Mar 18: The city's power woes may finally be over.

Tata Power, the bulk licensee for supplying power to Mumbai, will be adding a 250-MW plant to its Trombay thermal unit in the next two years.

The 250-MW addition to its existing capacity of 1,774 MW, coupled with Reliance Energy’s 500 MW at Palghar, will be sufficient to meet the city’s demand of about 2,000 MW. But Tata Power is not stopping there.

The company, which supplies power to undertakings like BEST, Reliance Energy and the railways, is planning to add another 1,000 MW project in the future as the company has sought to distribute power in cities like Pune.

The additional power is going to cost the consumer four paise per unit.

“We will be holding the groundbreaking ceremony for the coal-based thermal power plant at Trombay on Monday. The estimated cost of the project is Rs 890 crore and  is expected to be completed in 26 months,” said Tata Power executive director, P K Kukde.

The generation cost will be around Rs 2.40 per unit.

When asked why it took so long for Tata Power to wake up to Mumbai’s demand, Kukde said he didn’t want to dwell in the past but would rather look to the future.

 “We are sourcing 50 MW from our Jamshedpur plant, 100 MW from Jindal Power at Rs 3.10 per unit and 100 MW from Kawas in Gujarat.

While the Kawas power will be very costly (Rs 7.14 per unit), we will use it for only five to six hours a day and therefore the additional burden will be only four paise per unit,” Kukde said.

The tariff revision, however, is the prerogative of the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission.

The quasi-judicial body that settles disputes between consumers and power utilities in the state has warned that it may slap a fine of up to 80 per cent on consumers who do not reduce their demand by 20 per cent.