NEW DELHI: The Union power ministry’s decision to reallocate the 500 MW that Delhi was getting from the National Thermal Power Corporation’s Dadri-II plant Haryana resulted in the capital facing an electricity shortage.
But it managed to meet the significant demand caused by high heat without facing any outages. Now, the Union power ministry has said that from November 1, the entire 728 MW from Dadri-II will be allocated to Delhi, sources said.
In compliance with Delhi High Court’s order, the central government reallocated around 500 MW of Delhi’s share to Haryana, with only the balance 228 MW to be used by Delhi till October 31. Delhi government had written to the ministry last month, requesting it to reconsider its decision on the allocation of power to prevent a black-out in the capital. Sources said that even though the ministry reallocated 500 MW from the plant, the month of July didn’t see as high a demand for power as Delhi had recorded in June.
On June 28, Delhi clocked a peak power demand of 7,601 MW, the highest ever since the previous record of 7,409 MW on July 2, 2019. The very next day, this mark was breached with an all-time high of 7,695 MW at 3.10pm.
“The power peak load in July has remained mostly below 7,000 MW because the rains have led to a reduced demand,” a Delhi government official said. “This was a blessing because a shortfall of 500 MW is difficult to manage in the summer season when power demand is at its peak. There were shortfalls on a few days, but the discoms managed to bridge the gap by buying power from the exchange.”
Even though Delhi usually witnesses peak demand during the last week of June and first week of July, officials said that it is possible that the city could still see the peak power demand cross the 8,000 MW mark this month.
According to sources, Delhi government, in its letter to the power ministry in June, pointed out that while it had asked to be permitted to surrender the power allotted from Dadri-II in 2015 and this was relevant at that time, no action was taken on it by the Centre. However, after the demand increased substantially, it had been requesting since 2017 to be able to continue consuming power from Dadri-II.
Source: PTI
