Delhi reclaims power share as city hits peak June demand

The Delhi government had earlier expressed the desire to surrender the 728MW from Dadri-II in 2015, and hence it was reallocated to Haryana. However, the Delhi High Court later stayed the Centre’s decision.

The Delhi government has written to the Centre demanding full allocation of its share of 728MW of electricity from the Dadri-II thermal power station even as national Capital clocked a peak power demand of 7,311 MW at 3:30 pm on Monday, which is the highest not only for the season, but also the highest ever recorded in the month of June.

The Delhi government had earlier expressed the desire to surrender the 728MW from Dadri-II in 2015, and hence it was reallocated to Haryana. (Representative image)

Delhi has met an all-time high power demand of 7,409 MW recorded on July 2, 2019.

The Delhi government had earlier expressed the desire to surrender the 728MW from Dadri-II in 2015, and hence it was reallocated to Haryana. However, the Delhi High Court later stayed the Centre’s decision.

On June 9, Delhi government’s power department wrote to the secretary of the union power ministry urging the Centre to reconsider its decision of reallocating power from NTPC’s Dadri-Il power plant from Delhi to Haryana in view of expected power demand in Delhi this summer likely to hit 8,200-MW mark.

“Without Dadri-ll (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 of Delhi. Therefore, it is imperative that Delhi must continue to receive its power share of 728MW from Dadri-ll power plant,” said the letter written by Delhi government’s special secretary (power), Azimul Haque to secretary, ministry of power, Alok Kumar.

“Delhi continues to require this power in view of manifold increase in the power demand in the National Capital Territory of Delhi in order to maintain uninterrupted power supply in Delhi. The fact that this power was surrendered by Delhi government in the year 2015 cannot be taken as a valid plea for reallocation of this power since much water has flown after 2015, and the whole scenario of power requirement has changed in the year 2022,” the letter said.

The letter comes after the Delhi high court on June 1, asked the Centre to intervene in a dispute between Delhi and Haryana over their claim to the allocation of 728 MW of electricity generated by the Dadri-II thermal power plant, noting that there was an “emergent need” to examine and balance the interests and requirements of the two states.

“Upon an overall consideration...it would appear to be expedient to require the MoP (Ministry of Power) to examine the rival claims, consider the validity of the asserted right of the petitioners and GNCTD for continued allocation of Dadri-II power, and explore avenues which may safeguard the interests and projected needs of the two states and take an appropriate decision based on a holistic examination of all the facts that may be placed before it,” said justice Yashwant Varma in an interim order on June 1.

On March 30, the court stayed an order by the ministry of power which, alluding to a purported surrender of power generated by the Dadri-II thermal power station by the Delhi government, transferred the 728 MW allocation to Haryana.