According to data shared by the Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Company Limited (MSEDCL), 687 power outages occurred in January 2024, affecting 2.2 million consumers and lasting over 1,496 hours.
Pune circle includes Pune city, Pimpri Chinchwad and some rural areas of Pune district.
Ganeshkhind circle covers Pune city and nearby industrial areas like Bhosari, Kothrud, Pimpri and Shivaji Nagar. Rasta Peth covers all areas of Pune city except Kothrud and Shivaji Nagar, while Pune rural includes areas like Manchar, Rajgurunagar and Mulshi.
According to reliability index data published on the MSEDCL website, Rasta Peth, which covers most urban areas in Pune, has suffered 227 power outages. It kept 7, 86,017 consumers in the dark for 533.08 minutes (8.88 hours).
Ganeshkhind circle has 13, 27, 797 consumers out of which 4, 35,532 consumers witnessed 164 power outage incidents and were in darkness for 368.66 minutes (6.14 hours).
Rural areas of Pune city faced maximum 296 power outages, leaving 1, 71,721 consumers in the dark for 593.75 minutes (9.89 hours).
As per the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC) rules, MSEDCL is required to publish reliability indices every month, but it did not publish these indices on its website in the last three months from January 2024.
Vivek Velankar, a citizen activist, said: “MSEDCL takes action only when it receives a complaint. They released information three months after the complaint very soon to show that they were ready. But because it highlighted the issues of MSEDCL, So they avoid publishing it”
Rajendra Pawar, chief supervising engineer of MSEDCL in Pune circle, said: “We will upload reliability indicator data as soon as possible. Normally, we upload data on a quarterly basis.”
In Maharashtra, 13,001 power outages occurred in the state in January 2024. The state’s 50 million consumers were forced into darkness for 23,434 hours.