: The electricity demand in the Capital touched a new high at 6,260 MW at 3:29 p.m. on Wednesday.
Delhi’s demand for electricity is almost double that of Mumbai and three times more than that of Chennai and Kolkata, said Delhi Transco Limited (DTL) officials.
Power demand in the entire North-East region is also less than half of that of Delhi.
If the heat and humidity continued to persist, the demand for power might go up to 6,500MW, said DTL officials. While officials emphasised that the present power infrastructure could easily meet a demand up to 9,000 MW, they said that non-payment of dues by the discoms was hampering the augmentation of infrastructure and maintenance activities.
Pending dues
“Reliance-owned discom BSES owes more than Rs. 2,000 crore of DTL, and have not been paying despite directions of the Supreme Court. DTL is committed to providing uninterrupted supply to Delhi citizens but ever-increasing demand and limitation of resources can sometimes affect the supply,” said a senior DTL official.
BSES officials, however, pointed towards financial stress as one of the reasons behind their inability to clear the dues.
“BSES is under huge financial stress due to non-liquidation of regulatory assets estimated to be over Rs. 16,000 crore as on March 31,” said a BSES spokesperson.
“We are awaiting a Supreme Court judgment, which will clear the path for recovery of the regulatory assets. BSES discoms are also trying to clear pending dues,” the spokesperson added.
