The power generation company Damodar Valley Corporation has threatened to suspend power supply to Delhi, after blaming power distribution company BSES for non-payment of dues.
The DVC on Thursday said subsidiaries of the BSES --BRPL and the BYPL--have not cleared their dues running into several hundred crores, despite repeated reminders. The BSES for its part denied the allegation and said the discoms have “not received any regulation notice’ from the DVC.
DVC claims that the discoms have been sourcing power since April 2007 as per a power purchase agreements signed between the two. DVC officials said BRPL still owes the generation company Rs.169 crore while BYPL has an outstanding amount of Rs.162 crore to pay.
BSES sources about 280 MW of electricity from DVC. DVC officials said the supply has not been suspended for so long keeping in view the distress of the consumers in the city, they however cautioned that they will have to resort to disconnecting supply if the payment is delayed further.
A BSES spokesperson said the discoms have not been able to recover costs incurred for purchase of power in the absence of cost reflective tariff for the last several years. “This has resulted in gradually depleting cash availability, especially on account of the reluctance of banks to extend loans to the power sector in the current regulatory environment. It has become increasingly difficult for BSES to meet the payment commitments to generators supplying power. DVC is also one such generating company,” the spokesperson said.
On the DVC’s accusation, the spokesperson said: “In spite of all these difficulties, over which discoms, have no control, we have been making payments of current dues regularly and also liquidating the past arrears as and when possible. BSES expects a tariff correction– which will address these discrepancies – to happen shortly and there after the situation, is likely to improve. This correction is already overdue.”
Meanwhile BSES has also been asked by the Delhi Government’s generating companies to pay up around Rs.1,300 crore in dues, failing which they will be liable for action.
Sources in the Power Department said the company has been told to clear the dues to two power generation companies, the Pragati Power Corporation Limited (PPCL) and the Indraprastha Power Generation Corporation Limited (IPGCL), which supply around 330 MW of power to BYPL and BRPL.
“The power generating companies also need money, so they asked the discoms to work out some plan for payment. The discoms have been claiming that their financial condition is making it difficult to make payment, so they need a few days to work out a solution,” said an official.
“We have already collected Rs.35 crore from them in the past two days. Will review position early next week,” the official said.
