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. 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).

Annual total funding (US$ millions). *2026 data through September 29, 2026. 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.

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.

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.