In the coming weeks when the mercury will be on an upward climb, States like Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh will reel under power cuts brought on by a deficit power supply, but Delhi it seems is the only Northern Region constituent that can look forward to an almost 24x7 supply.
As per the projections of power demand submitted to the Union Ministry of Power, the Northern States have indicated a shortfall of as much as 6,000 MW during the summer months, barring Delhi, which has claimed that it has a shortfall of a manageable 400 MW.
Delhi discoms which have been constantly referring to their poor financial condition and therefore, the inability to arrange power for the city have assured the Ministry that all arrangements have been inked and all deficit will be met.
The projected demand for the City for the 2013-14 is up to 5,845 MW with a gap of up to 423 MW. The City’s demand is expected to peak from May onwards and continue till July. But, during this period it will have an anticipated shortfall of 400 MW.
Power purchase
“Two of the three discoms BYPL and TPDDL have assured the Centre that they have made all arrangements, only BRPL has to make up for this deficit, and they too have claimed that it will done through power purchase and banking arrangements with the other States,” said an official.
Citing examples of States with higher power deficits the official said Jammu and Kashmir has a projected demand of 3,035 MW, but a gap of up to 1,534 MW, Haryana that has a projected demand of 8,649 MW had a projected gap of 3,360 MW, Uttar Pradesh with a demand for 15,839 MW has claimed its deficit is likely to be 6,832 MW and Punjab with a 13,191 MW demand has a deficit of 5,975 MW.
Last year Delhi’s demand shot up to 5,642 MW and the shortfall was about 300 MW. “Though the projected demand is expected to be 5,854 MW, there is a possibility of the peak load touching 6,300 MW this summer and the discoms have made arrangements for the same. In our area we are expecting the peak load to touch 1,700 MW and we have made arrangements for more than that, keeping in view unforeseen events like plant shutdown or a technical fault,” said Praveer Sinha, chief executive officer of TPDDL.
BRPL peak power demand, which reached 2,338 MW during the summers of 2012, is expected to touch around 2,500 MW this year. “Arrangements are being firmed up by BRPL to source adequate power to meet the peak power demand of its nearly 17.5 lakhs consumers during the ensuing summer months. While making these arrangements, taking a cue from the past experience and factoring in the last minute unforeseen constraints, the company is ensuring a buffer of 3-5 per cent over and above the anticipated demand,” said a spokesperson.
In BYPL area, which has 12.5 lakh consumers the peak is expected to be around 1,600 MW. “To have a comfortable summer, BYPL has tied-up adequate power. Though primarily, this power is through long-term arrangements, a part of it (about 150-200 MW) is also through power banking arrangement with other States,” a company official said.
The Centre has also asked the discoms to send their concerns about the financial constraints to the Powergrid. The disocms had raised the issue of not being able to open Letter of Credit since banks have been turning down their requests in view of their high financial exposure.
“The discoms in Delhi are doing their best to meet the demand, as there is a no tolerance policy towards power cuts and limits to how much load-shedding can be carried out. This is in sharp contrast to the other States that routinely carry out load-shedding,” said the official.
