Maharashtra: A 'data hub' of rising power cuts | Part 1

“60% of India’s data centre capability is created in Maharashtra,” said CM Devendra Fadnavis at an inaugural event of Jabil Inc. A mere fortnight later, residents in Pune’s Ravet staged a protest after facing a 48-hour power cut, alleging government negligence. CM Fadnavis fast-tracked land distribution for data centres as major clusters emerged in Mahape on May 22, 2026. Between May and June 2026, Navi Mumbai experienced 6-12 hours of power cuts, mostly scheduled by the State. By June 6-8, transformers began “tripping due to excessive load,” leaving residents powerless amid rising temperatures. Residents’ voices · 1 Video to come Residents’ voices · 2 Video to come Residents’ voices · 3 Video to come Residents’ voices · 4 Video to come Behind Maharashtra’s push for data centres lies increasing power outages and apathy towards its people. Credits: Gautam Doshi Over 270 data centres spread across India power the nation’s growing data usage. According to Nokia's 2026 report, India's 900 million mobile subscribers consumed 31 GB data monthly, making data truly the ‘opium of the masses’. Promoting data centres’ push into India, Lok Sabha passed the Taxation and Other Laws (Amendment) Bill, 2026 allowing foreign companies and specified data centres to avail existing tax exemptions until March 31, 2047. An Indian company under lease of a foreign company will fall under the exempt ambit. Following the Centre’s lead, several states have framed policies, and signed MoUs to expand its data centre footprint. Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat have offered tax-breaks, stamp duty waivers, concessional land rates, assured dual power supplies, incentives for ‘green’ data centre parks to attract data giants like STT Global Centres, Amazon, CtrlS, Nxtra, NTT Global Data Centres etc. Funding for data centre infrastructure in India has witnessed a sharp increase in 2026. Out of the total funding of $1.89 billion since 2017, over $1.1 billion (~60%) was received in 2026 alone (until September 29, 2026). Data centre funding in India Annual data centre funding in India, 2017–2026 Funding in millions of U.S. dollars: 2017, 4.1; 2018, 17.2; 2019, 8.58; 2020, 99.9; 2021, 153; 2022, 4.22; 2023, 216; 2024, 184; 2025, 29.9; and 2026 through September 29, 1,180. 2017201820192020202120222023202420252026* Annual total funding (US$ millions). *2026 data through September 29, 2026. Source: Tracxn Maharashtra leads the pack with nearly $300 billion worth MoUs signed. The state aims to increase data centre capacity to 5.7 GW by 2031. Power demand and subsequent consumption has risen across Maharashtra, including Mumbai. As of August 20, 2026, Maharashtra’s daily power demand stood at 25.9 GW, of which the demand for Mumbai amounts to 3.5 GW. Between March and June this year, increasing demand led to power cuts across the State - with 28.127 million units not supplied in June alone. This was just 0.15% of the total energy supplied in the State in June but it is enough to power over 93,000 homes for a month. Almost every single day in June, citizens witnessed power cuts across the State, totaling at least 35 hours of no power. However, data centres are powered 24x7 through multiple sources. This is the story of Maharashtra’s data centre ambitions, a strained power grid behind rising outages, depleting water resources, and its people paying the price of it all. Power burden Inside data centres Maharashtra’s rising power burden Let us first look at Maharashtra’s growing power demand. The Hindu's analysis of the past six years' power profile of Maharashtra shows the average daily power demand steadily increasing in Mumbai from 2000 MW in May 2020 to 3500 MW in May 2026, peaking yearly during March to June due to increasing temperatures. For the rest of Maharashtra, the jump is from 15,700 MW to 24,000 MW in the same period. In May 2026, Maharashtra’s consumption reached an all-time peak of 20,970 Million Units (MUs where 1 unit = 1 kW-hour). On May 13th alone, the State’s maximum power demand peaked at 32.3 Gigawatts, approximately 13% of the entire country’s maximum demand that day. Every year, the State’s demand peaks between March and June, driven by rising temperatures during summer. The power consumption in May 2026 was around 18.5% higher than that of May 2025. June saw an increase of 19.3% compared to June 2025. Questions arise whether Maharashtra can handle this power load as Maharashtra State Electricity Distribution Co. Ltd. (MSEDCL) reports show that forced outages have increased in the past two years, peaking again in May and June 2026. Load shedding by cause Monthly total · million units (MU) Generation constraints Transmission constraints Source: Maharashtra State Load Dispatch Centre (SLDC), MSEDCL area. Monthly values are stacked by reported cause. Data show power demand increase for Mumbai (75%) outweighs the increase in energy catered (70%). For the rest of Maharashtra, increase in demand (52.86%) and increase in energy catered (51.98%) are more or less the same. When power demand is not met, power utilities carry out forced power cuts, i.e. ‘load shedding’. However, Maharashtra State Load Dispatch Centre’s (SLDC) reports show that the brunt of load shedding was faced by rest of Maharashtra which is operated by the state's power utility – MSEDCL - and not by Mumbai, which gets power mainly from private companies (Tata and Adani) apart from state's BEST. The SLDC report shows that the MSEDCL area faced increased load shedding in 2022 (March, April) and 2023 (March to November) due to power overdraw as power consumed was higher than the generation capacity. Excess demand was balanced by power cuts, stabilising the state's grid voltage and frequency. However, from 2024 onwards, constraints of transmission network were added to load shedding. 28.13 million units At approximately 300 units per household each month, that could power 1 home icon = 1,000 homes 93,000 homes for one month Rise of data centres Data centres first emerged in Mumbai in 2000, and later in Navi Mumbai, before expanding to Pune and Nashik. These units hosted multiple subsea cable landing stations connecting India to Europe, Africa, Southeast and West Asia, by providing reliable power sources, and assured water supply. Mumbai was the preferred location for most data centres. Low latency made Mumbai and its surrounding areas a suitable data hub. “Our grid was never ready for such data centre loads. We had residential, industrial, and agricultural loads, which were rising in a very known trend. But data centre loads are coming up in a very small period of time. Currently, connectivity has been given to 2 GW of data centres. Of these, 600 MW is operational,” says Peeyush Sharma, Executive Director, Mahatransco. The Hindu's map of data centres identifies 72 known locations in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai, of which 42 are operational and 30 are under construction. 18 data centres are currently operational within Mumbai, while 24 are in and around the city with the biggest cluster of 16 data centres in Mahape. Among those operational, the largest one is Princeton Digital in Airoli with a capacity of 150 MW, while the smallest data centre is Mumbai Edge data centre with a 0.8 MW installed capacity in Mahalakshmi. In comparison, the smallest among the planned ones is Bridge Data Centres in Digha with a capacity of 32 MW and the largest one is AdaniConnex in Ghansoli with a planned capacity of 1 GW. Explore mapped data-centre locations as the region’s network expanded. Drag the timeline to see sites operating by each year. Until 2000Cumulative loadNo reported load figure Move through the years 2000201020202026 Show planned sites While data centres keep getting added, people are facing increased power cuts in the surrounding areas. To understand the ground scenario, The Hindu analysed forced, unplanned outages across Maharashtra, including load shedding, cable faults, and transformer tripping or failure. Explore outage patterns across the state Compare the regions by month. Select Konkan to explore its zones and circles in more detail. Source: Maharashtra State Load Dispatch Centre. Monthly forced-outage records, March 2024–June 2026. Power cuts, in residents’ words Select a marker to read a resident’s account of outages in their area. Source: Interviews conducted by The Hindu. Locations are approximate and based on the areas identified by residents. Explaining the disparity in power supply, Mr Sharma says, “Load shedding is not done to industrial feeders in the first phase. As data centres are critical infrastructure catering to clients within India and international, they won’t be part of any load shedding plans. Currently, they are not part of any load shedding plans.” When asked why consumers face power cuts while data centre receive continuous power, Mr. Sharma says, “Infrastructure is being created for all types of consumers within that area. However, as they (data centres) are being supplied with a reliable, redundant supply at EHV levels, they receive 24x7 reliable power. But as residential customers are connected to lower voltages at distribution, they face power cuts and outages which may be due to other reasons apart from shortage of power. Upgradation of this network is being undertaken on large scale, and it will not be an either-or case (viz. Data centres served at cost of consumers).” Inside data centres Data centre operators are aware of the burdened state of Maharashtra’s power grid and the load they add to it. A basic schematic of a data centre shows that it comprises power substation, distribution system, backup generators, Universal Power Supply systems, server racks, cooling system, security system, sewage treatment plant. Let’s look at how a data centre is powered and its consumption Every data centre mapped by the Hindu boasts of n+1 redundancy, UPS systems and back-up generators for assured 24x7 power supply. This reliability holds true even in regions like Navi Mumbai, which experiences load shedding, power cuts, and transformer tripping due to overload. For water needs, data centres have installed sewage treatment plants, closed loop water systems that use recycled water, significantly reducing their reliance on municipal corporation’s water supply. To know more about how data centres have ensured their reliability against grid failure, lack of regular water supply and voltage fluctuations, The Hindu visited Equinix MB3, a commercial data centre in Mumbai’s Chandivali. Equinix MB-3 Equinix MB3 is the largest data centre in the region, spanning 155,538 square feet on Chandivali’s Farm Road. It accommodates up to 5,000 IT racks (approximately 28 MW), with around 1,370 racks currently operational. Powered by two 33 kV lines from Tata Power’s Saki and Powai substations, MB-3 is a commercial data centre serving light IT loads and is air-cooled with a closed-loop water system. It has the capacity to upgrade to liquid cooling if clients take on heavier AI loads. Inside the data centre 1 / 3 Explaining the facility’s power usage, Ganesh Pawar, Senior Director, Data Centre Operations at Equinix, says, “Power used by customers is IT load and total load is what we (Equinix) invest in cooling to serve that IT load, ancillary load. For Equinix, for 1 kW IT load we put 0.37 kW load to cooling, pumping, lighting etc. We are constantly reducing the auxiliary load by innovation and aim to reduce it to 0.33 by 2030.” He adds that the reactive power (electricity which facilitates flow of current between source and load with magnetic fields) needs of the facility is taken care by APFC (Automatic Power Factor Correction) capacitor banks which maintain the power factor at unity, thus ensuring no distortion occurs in the power grid. The SLDC too assures that voltage disruptions have not been added to the grid due to the addition of data centres. “As these (data centres) are stable, passive loads, the size of the data centre does not signify the reactive power requirements. Any data centre which does not meet its reactive power requirements at its place, will either draw from or feed into the grid. Almost 60% (1200 MW) of the 2 GW sanctioned data centres are small in size. The standards for any data centre are the same as they all cater to same type of client – AWS, Microsoft etc,” says Mr. Sharma. Equinix MB-3 is unaffected by water cuts, which are prevalent in surrounding residential buildings. “Water usage in data centre is limited to housekeeping, landscaping for which we have sewage treatment plants and rainwater harvesting plants. We are not dependent on BMC for water supply to run the data centre as such and in case of water cuts, we can order water tankers,” says Mr. Pawar. The Hindu reached out to hyper-scale data centres like Sify, Princeton Digital and CtrlS for an interview, but they declined, citing client confidentiality and security protocols. Classified as critical infrastructure and shielded by privacy priorities, large data centres are reluctant to share even basic details such as power and water usage or their data-hosting capacity. With India aiming to source 50% of its power demand from non-fossil, renewable sources, data centres have pivoted their focus to running on “green power”. But is it really an “alternative option”? Will this ease the burden on civilians facing power cuts? Citizens in Thane don’t think so. Amazon’s proposed 422 MW data centre has been opposed by residents of Balkum, with several street protests. We explain this in Part 2 of Maharashtra: A data hub of rising power cuts.