Delhi’s power crisis not over, plants left with coal only for 2-3 days: Minister

Satyendar Jain said even though the power distribution companies in Delhi are meeting the daily electricity demand, several areas in the city continued to face outages, some of which lasted up to four hours

Despite assurances from the central government that fears of a power crisis in India are overblown as the country has sufficient coal reserves to produce electricity, Delhi power minister Satyendar Jain on Monday said the power situation in the national capital is yet to normalise and most coal-fired power plants are functioning at up to 55% of their capacity. He said most plants currently have coal stocks left only for 2-3 days more.

Satyendar Jain said ideally, no power plant should have a coal stock of less than 15 days. “But right now, most plants have stock for two or three days. (Reuters file)

Jain said even though the power distribution companies in Delhi are meeting the daily electricity demand, several areas in the city continued to face outages, some of which lasted up to four hours. According to the load shedding reports, seen by Hindustan Times, areas such as Sarita Vihar, Gautampuri, Rohini, Burari, Laxmi Nagar, Shakarpur, Malviya Nagar and GTB Nagar, among others, saw power cuts ranging from one to four hours.

“The power demand is being met, but it is also being met through rotational load shedding,” a senior official from the state power department said, asking not to be named.

Jain said ideally, no power plant should have a coal stock of less than 15 days. “But right now, most plants have stock for two or three days. This is after the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) reduced power generation at all its plants to 50-55% plant capacity to ensure optimal use and equitable distribution of whatever coal is available,” he said.

The Delhi minister explained that the power demand of the city is currently low, ranging between 3,300MW and 4,800MW. Delhi’s peak demand during the summer usually crosses 7,000MW, but that is mostly only on a few days.

Delhi’s peak power demand on Monday was 4,745 MW and on Sunday, it was 4,562 MW.

When asked how Delhi’s electricity demand is being met currently, Jain said the balance power (after NTPC supply) is being procured on the spot at higher costs of ₹17-20 per kW and also through gas-based power plants in Bawana and Pragati-I. The production at these plants has been ramped up with the Centre providing more APM gas (domestic gas supply) to these stations.

“If the Central government is saying there is no power crisis, then why did Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath also write a letter to the central government? It is obvious that the letter was written because the problem exists. The Delhi government has maximum power purchase agreements (PPAs) with NTPC, but they have cut power production at their plants by 50-55%,” Jain said.

“According to the PPAs, for 85% of the year, NTPC has to provide full supply and the remaining 15%, it can be up to 55%. But this cannot be done for all plants at the same time. Usually, NTPC gives about 4,000MW electricity to Delhi, but as of today (Monday), it is not able to supply even half of that,” Jain said.