NTPC deny discoms allegation of supply shortfall

Power generation company NTPC has denied the allegations of power discoms in Delhi that there is a shortfall in supply on account of low generation at its plants. On Friday, NTPC officials said the snags that were reported from Badarpur Thermal Power Plant and Dadri-II have been rectified and the power production is far from being in deficit.

The power producer said it has been generating adequate quantum of power and contrary to the discoms’ claims that there is a dip in generation, it has had to scale down production because there were no takers for the power.

“NTPC NCR installed capacity is 4,437 MW from which present allocation to Delhi is 2,403 MW. In addition, Delhi also has a share of 177 MW from NTPC joint venture Jhajjar station in the NCR. Delhi has an additional allocation of 773 MW from other NTPC stations. Total allocation for Delhi from all NTPC stations, including Jhajjar, works out to be 3,353 MW. As of now, out of current availability of 1,913 MW from NTPC NCR stations, Delhi discoms are not drawing 285 MW,” said a senior official of the company.

Delhi discoms are also not drawing 110 MW from NTPC joint venture Jhajjar station, the official added. “During the May 3 to 9 period, Delhi surrendered about 155 MW on an average basis from NTPC NCR stations and 106 MW from Jhajjar station. In view of the surplus power available with Delhi State, various discoms of Delhi have not been utilising the full capacity made available to them by NTPC. During the current financial year till date, Delhi discoms have surrendered about 283 MW on an average on daily basis out of the NTPC NCR stations and 163 MW from Jhajjar,” the official said, refuting claims of the discoms that the generation has been scaled down and could lead to power cuts in the city.

Power discoms on Thursday had claimed that the city was short of 600 MW of power on account of technical snags in Dadri Thermal 2 and Badarpur Thermal Power Plant.

On the technical snags that occurred on Thursday, the official said the Badarpur Unit of 210 MW had developed a problem, which was rectified within hours, and the unit is now fully operational; Dadri Unit No 5 of 490 MW developed a tube leakage in boiler and the same is expected back by Friday evening.

“Our units are available and Delhi can requisition whatever power it needs,” the official said.