Delhi government has written to the Ministry of Power for allowing it to retain 728 MW of electricity from NTPC Dadri-II plant, warning a blackout scenario in the national capital in coming days, official sources said on Monday.
The letter, dated June 9, by special secretary (power) of Delhi government to power secretary, Government of India, also requests to reconsider its decision to reallocate Dadri II plant power from Delhi to Haryana in view of its rising demand by the city, they said.
“Without Dadri-II, demand-supply deficit will increase, risking outages in national capital. Delhi must be allowed to retain its share (728 MW) from Dadri-II plant to avoid a blackout scenario,” the letter stated, as per the sources.
In the 27-page letter, Delhi government has emphasized the criticality of power from the Dadri-II plant to Delhi and urged the central ministry to reconsider its decision to reallocate this power to Haryana.
The Ministry of Power in April this year had said that Delhi power minister Satyendar Jain, through a letter dated July 6, 2015, had surrendered power from 11 central generating stations, including Dadri stage-II, with immediate effect and to reallocate it to other needy states.
The Power Ministry had in March this year reallocated power surrendered by Delhi to Haryana.
The letter from Delhi government stated that power purchase agreements executed between Delhi discoms (BSES and TPDDL) and NTPC for supply of power from various thermal power stations, including Dadri-II, signed almost 12 years ago are valid till July 30, 2035, for a committed capacity of 728 MW, the sources said.
“The 728 MW is critical for meeting Delhi’s power needs. Housing important installations and foreign embassies, the importance of uninterrupted power for the national capital cannot be over-emphasised,” sources in Delhi government said.
Delhi’s power demand has witnessed an unprecedented rise – from 5,846 MW in 2015 to expected power demand of 8,200 MW in 2022.
Despite considering the short term and bilateral arrangements and availability of Dadri-II, there is deficit of approximately 300 MW to 1,100 MW in various time slots during the period from June 2022 to September 2022 in Delhi, mentioned the letter.
“Without Dadri-II (728 MW) and considering the prevalent power market conditions, the deficit in demand and supply will increase significantly and will result in risk of outages in the national capital,” it claimed.
The fact that this power was surrendered by Delhi government in 2015 cannot be taken as a “valid plea for reallocation” since the whole scenario of power requirement has changed in 2022, it said.
Based on the requirement, Delhi government and Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) have been requesting Government of India since 2017 to continue to allocate the power from Dadri-II to Delhi, sources said.
“Delhi must be allowed to retain the whole 728 MW of its power share from Dadri-II power plant as per its existing PPA if blackout scenario in Delhi is to be avoided,” said the Delhi government letter.
