Delhi govt, DERC ask Centre to prevent blackouts during summer season

New Delhi, Mar 30: The Delhi government and the city's power regulator DERC on Wednesday wrote to the Centre asking it to ensure adequate electricity supply to save the national capital from blackouts during the summer season.

The power ministry had issued instructions to the Northern Regional Power Committee (NRPC) to re-allocate Delhi's share of 728 MW from the NTPC Dadri-II plant to Haryana from April 1, officials said.

However, in an urgent hearing earlier in the day, the Delhi High Court stayed the implementation of the power ministry's order, which was issued on Monday, they said, adding that the next date of hearing in the matter is April 1.

The secretary of the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) in a letter to the ministry's secretary requested it to "immediately withdraw" the reallocation order to avoid blackout in certain parts of the national capital and to meet continuous supply of power to run essential services like the Delhi Metro rail and hospitals.

"Electricity being in the Concurrent List of the Constitution and responsibility of all stakeholders to ensure supply of 24X7 power in the capital of India, no reallocation of power from Delhi to other states can be done unilaterally by MoP (Ministry of Power), Government of India without concurrence of the DERC, Delhi government and Delhi distribution licensees," the DERC said in the letter to the ministry.

Power from the NTPC's Dadri-II plant is "extremely crucial" for ensuring energy security of the national capital. The re-allocation will lead to a power crisis in the city and impact around 23 per cent of consumers, besides essential services including hospitals, vaccination centres, and strategic and defence installations, officials said.

Sources said that the reallocation of power from Delhi to Haryana caught electricity distribution companies (discoms) unaware. The city's discoms have already surrendered power allocation from the Dadri-I plant, citing high cost, from November 2020, they said.

"The reallocation of power to Delhi from Dadri-II is also beyond comprehension as the power purchase agreement of discoms for scheduling power from Dadri-II is valid and in force till July 30, 2035, when it completes stipulated 25 years," a source said.

The reallocation from the Dadri-II plant will pose a big problem before the discoms as such a large quantum of power (728 MW) at short notice may not be easily available at the power exchange, where the rates are already fluctuating between Rs 10-15 per unit, the officials said.

The special secretary of the Delhi government's power department in the letter to the ministry requested directions for central sector power generating stations to ensure availability of electricity to Delhi as per their allocation, especially from hydro power plants, Dadri-II and Aravali (Jhajjar). This will help avoid purchase of costly power from exchanges or gas-based stations, the letter said.

"The Government of NCT of Delhi in its recent communication dated 06.01.2022 to NTPC Limited has requested for reallocation of surrendered power of various NTPC stations. In the said communication, Government of NCT of Delhi has not shown its intent to surrender/relocation of power of Dadri-II," it stated.

Delhi cannot afford to have load shedding due to power shortages. However, 100 per cent reallocation of Delhi's share in Dadri-II will "hamper" the power requirement in the national capital during the peak summer and lead to power "disruption" in the city", the letter said. It pointed that the peak load of Delhi reached 7,323 MW on July 2, 2021, and is likely to touch 8,200 MW in the ensuing summer season.