With the power crisis in Delhi far from over, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Wednesday sought the Centre's intervention in securing the Capital its full quota of electricity. Though the city government has been reassuring that the situation will improve and load shedding will be discontinued, it finally had little option but to knock on the Centre's doors.
The Chief Minister on Wednesday said she will inform the Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde about the rampant overdrawal of electricity by several States and the disruption in the generation on account of a coal shortfall.
Talking to journalists, Ms. Dikshit said the Centre has been apprised of the situation and that she will soon write to Mr. Shinde.
For the past few days the city has been reeling under a severe power shortfall. On Wednesday, a 1,000 MW shortage led to power cuts for several hours across the city. Sources in the Power Department said the power supply tripped over 10 times through the day owing to under frequency.
The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission has called a meeting of the discoms with the Delhi State Load Dispatch Centre on Thursday. “We are aware of the situation and the meeting is to both review what is being done, to advise the discoms and also to find out what support they [discoms] want from us,” said DERC chairman P.D. Sudhakar.
He said the DERC has already allowed discoms to make purchases through the open exchange and through bilateral arrangements. “The problem of power shortage is not restricted to Delhi alone; there is a dip in generation on account of a coal shortage. Frequency too has been much below the desired units and if necessary steps are not taken, there is a threat of grid collapse,” he said.
According to the data offered by the Delhi Transco Limited, the reduction in power availability to Delhi from various central sector generating stations is about 275 MW. Besides, there is a reduction in generation at Badarpur Thermal Power Station to the tune of 150 MW. The reduction in availability of power to Delhi from thermal sources is about 425 MW and from hydro stations the supply has been reduced by 450 MW.
“On account of acute low frequency, automatic under frequency relays set at 48.8hz and below also automatically operated over seven times. This affected the load periodically during the day, but averted complete collapse of the grid,” said an official.
Delhi's own generation stood at 1,015 MW, with Damodar Valley Corporation supplying 78 MW between 12 a.m. and 12 p.m. against the committed supply of 230 MW. The peak demand was 3,636 MW at 7.13 p.m.