NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday flagged the impending power crisis and called for taking “quick and concrete steps” to address the situation. He claimed the Delhi government had so far managed it somehow but it’s indeed a grave situation in the whole country.
“There is a huge shortage of power in the country. So far we have managed it somehow in Delhi. ...Together, we soon need to find a solution. Quick, concrete steps are required to tackle this problem,” he tweeted. The Delhi government said the “acute shortage” of coal continued, with many power plants left only with a day’s stock and supplies likely to be disrupted.
Delhi’s Power Minister Satyendar Jain appealed to the Centre to ensure supply of coal at the earliest. “Peak demand of 6,000 MW electricity met in Delhi, only 1 day of coal left in many power plants. Produced electricity cannot be stored, so in normal circumstances, the reserve of coal should be more than 21 days. Earlier, there were 450 rakes in the trains carrying coal, which have been reduced to 405; need to immediately increase the number to deal with the crisis,” he tweeted.
“It is the responsibility of the Central government to supply coal,” Jain said, adding that while the number of railway rakes supplying coal should have increased, the exact opposite is happening. The minister claimed that power plants, including Dadri and Uchahar, had only a day’s stock of coal.
The Delhi government is monitoring the situation and making every effort to ensure there are no power outages. Currently, 25- 30% of the electricity demand in Delhi is being met through the power stations which are facing a coal shortage.
The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission held an emergency meeting with various power agencies and announced various steps to mitigate the situation. The DERC, after the meeting, said, “Power crisis expected to be arising out of current coal shortage and spurt in short-term power prices.”
To mitigate the crisis and safeguard the interest of consumers and distribution licensees, DERC, as an interim measure, allowed intra-discom banking facility, overlapping of banking and bilateral transactions, pass-through of additional deviation and sustain deviation charges with immediate effect. The interim measures will remain in effect till July 31, a DERC statement said.
Contesting the Delhi government’s claims of coal shortage, the National Thermal Power Corporation said the Unchahar and Dadri power stations were running at full capacity and receiving ‘regular’ coal supplies.