UP to protest penal action for 'Grid indiscipline'

Lucknow, May 5 (UNI) Uttar Pradesh government, facing penal action from Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) for 'grid indsicipline', will file a strong reply before it claiming that the state was not getting power from the Central sector as per quota.

The UP government is likley to file its reply in a couple of days before matter comes up for hearing before the CERC on May 9 next, UP Power Coproration Limited (UPPCL) sources told UNI here.

CERC had imposed a fine of Rs 15 lakh on UPPCL and Rs 1.5 lakh on its chairman for overdrawing power from Northern Grid, which has officially been described as 'very unstable' due to excessive load. The action had come on a petition of Northern Region Load Despatch Centre (NRLDC),the regulatory body to monitor load position and wihdrawl status from the grid.

Before that, the UP government would find an opportunity tomorrow to put forward its point of view before the Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde who has convened a meeting of all the chief secretaries and power secretaries of Northern states to discuss the grim situation.

It is well known that during the last month, the Northern Grid responsible for feeding nine states-UP, Rajasthan, Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Uttaranchal and Jammu and Kashmir, Uttaranchal and Himachal Pradesh was very vulnerable with its frequency hovering around 48 Hz, the threshold frequency below which it could collapse any time.

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