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NEW DELHI: Delhi had no shortage of power in the last 15 days, contrary to the claims of Delhi power minister Satyendar Jain and Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd CEO Ganesh Srinivasan who, over the weekend, warned of intermittent blackouts due to coal shortage at power plants feeding the national capital.
Government data for the September 25-October 10 period shows generation companies fully met Delhi’s daily power demand, which touched a peak of 5,349 MW (mega watt) on October 5. The consumption too peaked at 112.4 million units on that day.
Giving the lie to blackout claims, available data also shows that Delhi’s discoms (distribution companies) were utilising only 70% of state-run NTPC’s generation capacity earmarked for the national capital, leaving 30% surplus.
The average gap between NTPC’s capacity allocation and drawal by Delhi’s discoms is pegged at 594 MW per day during the period.
Delhi discoms have allocation of 756 MW from the 840-MW Unit-1 of the Dadri coal-fired thermal station near Delhi. The power station was set up in Delhi’s proximity as a strategic supplier to the national capital.
However, since November 2020, Delhi discoms have not been scheduling power from this station even when the fixed charge of Dadri-I unit is 97 paise per unit at the ‘normative present energy charge rate — ECR, or tariff in layman’s words — Rs 3.20 per unit, which is far cheaper than power available on the exchanges or from other plants.
Ironically, while Jain and Srinivasan have been talking about “intermittent blackouts” and coal shortage, the UP government, which has only 10% allocation from Dadri-1, is scheduling power from the plant to meet the state’s requirement.
Srinivasan and Jain had in separate statements over the weekend said “intermittent blackouts were imminent” because power plants feeding Delhi had coal for only “a few days”.
It later transpires that Tata Power had shut its 4,000-MW imported coal-based power station as it was unable to supply power at the tariff mentioned the power purchase agreement due to international coal prices tripling.
While there is no denying that nearly half of the non-pithead domestic coal-fired plants are running low on fuel, it did not threaten generation as inventories were being replenished daily.
The situation has been aggravated by a 30% reduction in generation by imported coal-fired plants under PPAs due to high international coal prices, while domestic coal-based power supply has gone up nearly 24% in the first half. The imported coal-based power plants have generated about 25.6 billion units against a programme of 45.7 billion units.
Government data for the September 25-October 10 period shows generation companies fully met Delhi’s daily power demand, which touched a peak of 5,349 MW (mega watt) on October 5. The consumption too peaked at 112.4 million units on that day.
Giving the lie to blackout claims, available data also shows that Delhi’s discoms (distribution companies) were utilising only 70% of state-run NTPC’s generation capacity earmarked for the national capital, leaving 30% surplus.
The average gap between NTPC’s capacity allocation and drawal by Delhi’s discoms is pegged at 594 MW per day during the period.
Delhi discoms have allocation of 756 MW from the 840-MW Unit-1 of the Dadri coal-fired thermal station near Delhi. The power station was set up in Delhi’s proximity as a strategic supplier to the national capital.
However, since November 2020, Delhi discoms have not been scheduling power from this station even when the fixed charge of Dadri-I unit is 97 paise per unit at the ‘normative present energy charge rate — ECR, or tariff in layman’s words — Rs 3.20 per unit, which is far cheaper than power available on the exchanges or from other plants.
Ironically, while Jain and Srinivasan have been talking about “intermittent blackouts” and coal shortage, the UP government, which has only 10% allocation from Dadri-1, is scheduling power from the plant to meet the state’s requirement.
Srinivasan and Jain had in separate statements over the weekend said “intermittent blackouts were imminent” because power plants feeding Delhi had coal for only “a few days”.
It later transpires that Tata Power had shut its 4,000-MW imported coal-based power station as it was unable to supply power at the tariff mentioned the power purchase agreement due to international coal prices tripling.
While there is no denying that nearly half of the non-pithead domestic coal-fired plants are running low on fuel, it did not threaten generation as inventories were being replenished daily.
The situation has been aggravated by a 30% reduction in generation by imported coal-fired plants under PPAs due to high international coal prices, while domestic coal-based power supply has gone up nearly 24% in the first half. The imported coal-based power plants have generated about 25.6 billion units against a programme of 45.7 billion units.
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