Part 2 – Privatization of power generation at the cost of Mahanirmiti is not in the interest of power workers and consumers
By Shri Girish, Joint Secretary, Kamgar Ekta Committee (KEC)
The Government of Maharashtra is taking steps to hand over power generation to private companies at the cost of state-owned power generation company, Mahanitmiti.
In March 2026, Adani Power received a Letter of Award from Mahavitaran for the supply of 1,600 MW of power from one of its upcoming ultra-supercritical thermal power projects.
On 14th May, 2026 Mahavitaran, filed a petition with Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission (MERC), seeking its approval for procuring 1,600 MW power from Adani Power.
Within just 35 days, MERC in its order dated 19th June, 2026, gave its approval. This is the lightning speed with which various government bodies move when interests of private capitalist companies are involved.
In the same order, MERC has asked Mahavitaran to terminate the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with the Mahanirmiti’s Bhusawal Unit 3 (210MW), Khaparkheda Units 1&2 (420MW), Nashik Units 3, 4 & 5 (630MW), Chandrapur Units 3 to 6 (340 MW). (Mahanirmiti is the state-owned power generating company in Maharashtra.) The existing PPAs with these generating plants are valid up to the year 2034, but as per this order, they will be terminated by the year 2030 that means 4 years before the due date!
As mentioned in the order, Mahanirmiti in its reply to the MERC stated that it has no submissions to make in the matter of advance termination of the PPAs!
The MERC, give a directive to Mahavitaran to for foreclosing the PPAs wit Mahanirmiti units, Mahavitaran gave the justification that Adani Power is cheaper than power supplied by Mahanirmiti and is therefore in consumer’s interest.
In the past, various state governments like Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh etc. had approached their respective State Regulatory commissions, to allow them to cancel / renegotiate PPAs with private power generating companies. In these cases, power from other sources like wind and solar power was available at cheaper rates and in some cases the coal prices had dropped due to which power could be sourced from other power generating companies at cheaper rates. However, their requests were denied by State Regulatory Commissions and even by the courts citing the reason of “inviolability of earlier entered agreements”! But, the inviolability of the PPA was ignored when the MERC granted the request and ordered foreclosure of PPA’s with Mahanirmiti. Very clearly state regulatory commissions and even courts judge things differently when private capitalist interests are involved.
Besides the PPA for 1600 MW signed with Adani Power, between 2024 and 2026 Mahavitaran has awarded Adani Group a cumulative 10,100 MW of new power capacity across thermal and renewable segments — a massive long-term energy commitment for Maharashtra for next 25 years.
This not only means that job security of tens of thousands of permanent and contract employees of Mahanirmiti is threatened, but also a threat to all the working people and farmers of Maharashtra who are consumers of electric power. We all know that as more and power generation will be concentrated in the hands of private power producers, we all will be at the mercy of those companies, whose only aim is to constantly increase profits which means reduced workforce, increased workload and increased contractualization and continuously increasing tariff.
The privatisation of power sector is the agenda of the biggest capitalists of the country like Tata, Adani, Goenka, Jindal, Mehta (Torrent group), etc. and hence will always be the agenda of all the big political parties of capitalist class. These monopoly houses already dominate thermal power generation in the country and almost completely own the renewable power generation. They now want to control transmission and distribution segments. Various approaches towards privatisation are being followed – franchising the distribution, introduction of private distribution companies in competition with discoms, handing over metering and collection to private companies through smart metering, outright sale of discom, etc.
The recent plans announced by Maharashtra government is an aggressive step towards that agenda. It is against the interests of working people of Maharashtra. Like Uttar Pradesh and recently Karnataka, there is an urgent need for workers of Maharashtra’s power sector to unleash a massive mass campaign amongst the consumers of electricity, i.e. working people and farmers and unitedly defeat plans of Maharashtra and Central government. In Uttar Pradesh electricity workers have organized hundreds of meetings of electricity consumers and dozens of massive mahapanchayat with farmers. Let us follow their example. Let us remember that we cannot rely on any big political parties of capitalist class, but only rely on our unity.