Large parts of Delhi witnessed power cuts over the weekend owing to shortage in electricity supply due to lower production by the power plants in the Capital. Long and unscheduled power cuts especially plagued parts of South and East Delhi.
Power distribution company BSES blamed it on the “continuing coal and water shortage in various power plants”. The problem, according to the discom, was most acute at the Badarpur Thermal Power Station (BTPS). “The water supply to BTPS has further reduced, compounding the issue and further reducing the power supply by around 100 MW,” a BSES spokesperson said.
He said due to reduction of power supply from BTPS, power supply to Delhi reduced by as much as 1000 MW for certain periods. This, in turn, reduced the availability of power to the Delhi discoms, forcing them to overdraw from the Northern Grid, he added.
Attributing the scarcity to shortage in coal supply, the discom said the National Thermal Power Corporations Dadri I, II, Singrauli, Rihand II, Farakka and Kahalgaon I and II units were producing significantly less than their installed capacities. “Mining and loading of coal has been badly affected due to heavy rain and the ongoing festival season in the mining areas in the East,” the statement said.
Delhi's own power generation too was on the lower side. The discom said due to shortage of water -- arising out of temporary closure of the Agra Canal -- the power plants in Delhi too generated much less power than their installed capacities. The “generating stations within Delhi, including BTPS, Gas Turbine and Rajghat were cumulatively producing around 410 MW less; normally they supply around 1100 MW to Delhi,” the discom said.
The shortage in power thus forced the discoms to undertake load shedding on rotational basis.
On Sunday, though, the situation was better than many days in the past week, since the Delhi load was comparatively less and so was the quantum and duration of load shedding, the discom said.
The real time data of State Load Despatch Centre, available on www.delhisldc.org , also showed that the power situation had significantly improved by evening. As per the data by evening, Delhi's own power generation had increased to about 1,060 MW as against the installed capacity of 1,081 MW. The generation from the Badarpur plant had also increased to around 493 MW as against the installed capacity of 500 MW.
