NEW DELHI: Delhi Power Minister Satyendar Jain on Tuesday said that all coal-reliant power plants are non-functional and that the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP) is creating confusion on the situation.
“Delhi Government buys electricity from power plants that run on coal located outside Delhi. BJP is spreading rumours on this,” said the Power Minister.
According to Jain, the National Thermal Power Corporation Limited (NTPC) has to give 3,500 megawatt (MW) power to Delhi under the power purchase agreement, but it is supplying only half of it – 1,750 MW – at present.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government had raised the issue publicly about coal shortage leading to problem with power supply. According to Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, there is an imminent threat of a blackout in the national capital.
The union minister of power rejected this claim, which led to a confrontation between the AAP government and the Centre.
Jain also pointed out that Delhi has gas-powered electric power plants, but the Central government has stopped giving gas to Delhi at a controlled rate because of which Delhi has to buy gas at market rates to generate electricity.
Jain said, “Central government’s NTPC is the largest producer of electricity. For the last few days, NTPC has halved the power generation in its power plants. They have done this not for one plant but for all the plants of the country. On one hand, the Central Government says that there is no shortage of coal and on the other hand they say that the responsibility of coal will now be handled by the Union Minister. The Central government should tell whether there is a shortage of coal or not or is it being done intentionally.”
Directions issued
Ministry of Power on Tuesday said it has issued directions to state-run NTPC and DVC (Damodar Valley Corporation) to supply as much power as available to Delhi discoms under their respective power purchase agreements.
NTPC said it has been making electricity available to the national capital but the distribution companies have been scheduling only 70 per cent of power made available to them. For eleven days, the discoms in the city scheduled (or got supply of) 38.81 million units.