In Delhi, power surplus does not mean electricity at your home

Long power outages across several parts of the city have become the norm this summer. This, when the city has surplus power.

Long power outages across several parts of the city have become the norm this summer. This, when the city has surplus power.

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Sample this: On May 27, the Capital’s power demand peaked at 5315MW and at 6,054MW, it had the capacity to meet that demand successfully. But it did not. Various parts of the city saw several hours of power cuts on that day.

On a given day, Delhi has had more than 1,000MW surplus power on an average. Yet many parts of the city are reeling under frequent power cuts for the past few weeks.

Delhi Transco Limited, which is responsible for power transmission, has blamed the power distribution companies. “Usually, outages happen due to a gap in demand and supply. But this time, most of these have been due to local faults, which should have been managed by the discoms,” said a senior power department official.

And yet, the discoms keep pushing for hike in power tariffs. The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission has already begun the process of formulating a new tariff policy.

Residents are now questioning the move since the discoms have failed to upgrade infrastructure. The power department also confirmed that their investments in infrastructure have declined over the past few years.

Even officials from Delhi Transco Limited, responsible for supplying power to the discoms, said the agency has been unable to improve its network as discoms have not paid them transmission charges. “Discoms BSES Rajdhani Power Limited and BSES Yamuna Power Limited owe us Rs 1,100 crore,” said Shakti Sinha, Delhi’s power secretary.

In the absence of system augmentation, maintenance has taken a back seat. As a result, west Delhi has been the worst hit. Recently, a 220KV

Bamnauli-Pappankalan line snapped due to excessive heat, leading to a 150 MW rotational load-shedding in Dwarka, Matiala, Bindapur and other adjoining areas.

Despite being flush with power, Transco has not been able to distribute it to the discoms due to technical snags. “A number of cables, sub-stations, and transformers have become outdated. Unless the discoms pay us, we will not be able to spend money on infrastructure,” said a senior Delhi government official.