Category: Engineering

MahaGenCo is the company responsible for generating the electricity consumed by the people in the state of Maharashtra. Here’s a bit of an advise for them, even if I know they won’t be reading about it here.

I learnt about a few people behind MahaGenCo when I met them at the Bhira Tail Race Water Plant as part of my study project for Hydraulics Machinery in my sixth semester. While there the Plant Manager told me that MahaGenCo was having a hard time get funded for new power plants in the state and that their planning and implementation was failing way short of the supply requirements of the state. It’s made the state a power deficit state – which means that they now need to borrow power from the neighbouring power rich states.

I should have probably supplied this advise to him but didn’t. I am sure MahaGenCo can setup an internal Power Consultancy Department which can provide energy audits, enable the setting up of non-conventional energy resources at home and let the people take up generating the extra load they consume themselves. This leads to a better awareness among people about the difficulties and investments required in generating power that they so love to waste. We are going into greater power deficits and this is the only move that let’s people understand the technological limits of power generation today.

The Department can also be a source of income for the Company which it could probably invest in an internal R&D cell. This cell can in turn make innovations in the hydel and thermal power industries which can be shared with other State companies on a royalty basis.

MahaGenCo is a much maligned company just because they have to shut off the power supply in case of heavy rains or even because of lack of rains. There have been recent incidents of blackening the faces of company officials because they had to shut off the power supply because of the power deficit on the grid. It’s best if the officials help the people produce their own power and hence escape from the wrath that they face every season. Details need to be worked up but I know they are really good at combing through the details.

I’m still waiting for Sem III results. It’s really bad that it’s taking this long. Read an article yesterday in the papers talking about getting results out within 30-45 days. It’s already somewhere around 70 days – long enough to make me forget what I wrote in my paper. Sigh!

I have been trying to write a few things about my course work on this blog. But, it’s not really fair to write about something you don’t experience. And, what I experience in my course work is just the lethargy of doing applied mathematical problems that seems to apply differently in different cases.

You would understand how these mathematical concepts are applied, perhaps if you understand their limits and why they are applied.

When my tutor explained to me about how the gas turbine really works and why the terms in the formulae are used in the way they are, it made more sense and much more easier to apply. For example,problems deal with pressure ratios and other ratios, because you cannot really quantify some of the mechanical properties of the machines. Understanding that, made it easier to deal in ratios. Maybe, it removed some block in my mind or it made one less thing to think about.

So, no matter what course you do in mechanical engineering, be sure to take a look at its underlying form. It is very difficult to do that practically but there is no other way around it.