NTPC supplying only half of agreed electricity, says Minister

‘Power crisis in country, Centre should consider it a problem’

“There is a power crisis in the country and the Central government should consider it a problem. Only then can its solution can be found,” said Delhi Power Minister Satyendar Jain. File

NTPC Limited is supplying only half the committed quota of electricity to Delhi, according to authorities.

“There is a power crisis in the country and the Central government should consider it a problem. Only then can its solution can be found,” said Delhi Power Minister Satyendar Jain on Monday.

The Minister said the Delhi government has most of its power purchase agreements with NTPC but it has cut power production at its plants by 50%.

“According to the agreement, 85% of the time in a year NTPC has to provide complete power supply and 15% of the time it can go up to 55%. But this cannot be done for all the plants at the same time. Usually, NTPC gives about 4,000 MW of electricity to Delhi, but now it is not able to supply even half of it,” Mr. Jain said.

The Minister said if there is no power crisis, as the Central government is claiming, then why are there power cuts across the country. “Why did Uttar Prdesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath write a letter to the Centre?" he asked.

“The situation is very critical. Several Chief Ministers have written to the Centre about it. All are trying together to improve the situation,” Mr. Kejriwal said on Monday, according to agency reports.

On Saturday, the Chief Minister wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the coal shortage, which he alleged was continuing for the third consecutive month, affecting power generation from major plants supplying electricity to Delhi.

The Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) Tariff Regulations mandated that generating stations maintain a coal stock of 10 days and 20 days, but it had dipped to zero to four days at five of the stations last week, as per the Delhi government.