: Delhi has been saved from an impending power blackout.
At a meeting called by the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) on Friday, State-run generation company NTPC agreed to defer its decision of curtailing electricity supply to the two BSES discoms.
“At the meeting, the power regulator directed both parties (NTPC and BSES) to come up with a mutual proposal within 10 days on how the dues will be paid off,” said a senior official who attended the meeting.
The hearing of both cases will be taken up by the DERC on May 16. Sources said the DERC had asked both parties to come to a point of compromise and warned the discoms of “tough action” if they defaulted any further.
Friday’s meeting was held after the NTPC had shot notices to BSES Yamuna and BSES Rajdhani Power Limited asking them to pay dues of around Rs. 1,300 crore or face 100 per cent curtailment in power supply from May 10.
The notices had been sent all the stakeholders, including the Delhi government, in a tizzy as snapping power to the extent of 2027 MW could have led to major power blackouts across the Capital in this sweltering heat.
All stakeholders of Delhi’s power sector – officials from the power department, discoms, NTPC, and agencies of the Delhi government like Delhi Transco Limited, Indraprastha Power Generation Company Limited, State Load Despatch Centre (SLDC), and Pragati Power Corporation Limited– were present in the meeting.
Govt. breaks the ice
Soon after the furore, the Delhi government was quick to step in. On Friday, the SLDC, which is run by the State government, shot a letter to NTPC directing it to “suspend the regulation of power supply and keep the notice in abeyance till further communication”.
In his letter, the Executive Director of SLDC, Harjiwan Vyas, said regulation of power to Delhi discoms would lead to an imbalance in the grid, resulting in imminent threat to the grid security. SLDC takes care of the integrated operation of the power system.
Mr. Vyas said if the NTPC scheduled power to a particular region or consumer, it would result in overloading of inter-regional and inter-State lines.
“The grid collapse will result in disruption of power supply to strategic installations and institutions of national importance such as the Supreme Court, High Court, Parliament, etc,” the letter read.
