BackCoal crisis: Delhi CM Kejriwal writes to PM Modi as city braces for power cuts
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal said he has written to PM Narendra Modi for his intervention in making adequate arrangements of coal and gas to generation plants supplying electricity to the city
PremiumThe national capital could face a power crisis, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said on Saturday, adding, “I am personally keeping a close watch over the situation." The Delhi CM has also written to Prime Minister Modi, seeking his intervention for adequate coal, gas supply to power plants supplying in the city.
This came hours after power discom Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (TPDDL) CEO Ganesh Srinivasan said that Delhi might go through intermittent rotational load shedding in coming days as coal shortage across the country has led to reduced power generation.
In his letter to PM Modi, Kejriwal noted that the city was facing coal shortage since August.
“I draw your attention to the prevailing coal shortage situation that is continuing since August/September for the third month in a row," the letter stated.
“It has affected the power generation from the major central generating plants supplying power to Delhi," it said.
Kejriwal requested PM Modi's intervention for adequate coal to be diverted from other plants to plants like Dadri-II and Jhajjar TPS, which are supplying to Delhi.
He also requested gas allocations to Bawana, Pragati -I and GTPS supplying power to the city.
"We are trying our best to avoid it. In the meanwhile, I wrote a letter to Hon’ble PM seeking his personal intervention," CM Kejriwal captioned a post that he shared on microblogging site Twitter.
Coal-based power stations supplying electricity to the national capital discoms have coal stocks to meet generation requirements for one-two days against 20 days as per applicable regulations, TPDDL CEO said in a statement.
‘Delhi might go through intermittent rotational load shedding’
"As a result, Delhi might go through intermittent rotational load shedding. However, proactive steps by both Delhi as well as the central government for handling the grim situation are under consideration to arrange or divert coal for power generation," Srinivasan said.
TPDDL, which supplies power to north and northwest Delhi areas, has started sending SMS to its customers urging them to use electricity judiciously, according to a PTI report.
"Due to limited coal availability in generation plants across north, power supply scenario between 2 pm to 6 pm is at critical level. Kindly use electricity judiciously. Be a responsible citizen. Inconvenience caused is regretted," read an SMS received by a TPDDL consumer in Burari.
The Reliance infrastructure led - BSES discoms - BRPL and BYPL - that supply power to major part of Delhi are yet to comment on the issue.
The three power distribution firms (discoms) in the city are joint ventures between private companies and Delhi government.
Coal shortages across India have led to reduced power generation from the coal based plants including those under long-term contracts with Delhi discoms including TPDDL, Srinivasan said.
Ahead of the festival season, the coal supply crisis seems to be deepening as 64 non-pithead power plants are left with less than four days of the dry fuel stocks, PTI had reported earlier this week.
The latest report on coal stocks for power plants from the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) also showed that 25 such power plants had coal stocks for less than seven days as on October 3.
The report also showed that 17 plants -- with a cumulative installed power generation capacity of 21,325 MW -- had zero coal stocks while 20 power plants of 22,550 MW capacity had one day of the dry fuel stocks.
Power Minister R K Singh had reportedly termed the coal shortage as way beyond normal.
The power availability situation is currently alarming due to the long festive season with additional demand, the TPDDL CEO said.
"We are in dialogue with the generators to assess the situation on a real-time basis and re-align the contingency plans accordingly. Communications on coal shortage and its adverse fall out on cash flows have been shared with Delhi government and Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission requesting suitable intervention on both issues," he said.
Srinivasan, further said that the shortage has led to an "exponential increase" in the power prices on power exchanges "adversely impacting" the cash flow as the purchase payments has to be done before delivery as against a credit period of 45 days available under the long term contracts from the coal generating stations.
There is limited availability of power on the power exchanges as the issue is being faced pan India and may impact the Delhi, he added.
Sources in Delhi power sector said that due to coal shortage there has been a reduction of power from coal based generating stations to many states, including Delhi.
"Being the national capital, housing several strategic institutions of national and international importance, Delhi cannot afford to witness power-outages. Keeping this in mind, the authorities have to ensure adequate availability of the power," they said.
Production from the Bawana power plant has been ramped up from around 320 MW to around 1,300 MW to make up for reduced generation by coal based plants, sources claimed.
With PTI inputs
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