New Delhi: Even as the Centre scrambles to stop power cuts in light of the ongoing coal crisis, the Delhi government was on Tuesday again found at odds with the Union government, with the NTPC declaring that discoms in Delhi were scheduling only 70 per cent of the power they were being supplied and Delhi Power Minister Satyendar Jain insisting that the NTPC is not fulfilling its purchase agreement.
"NTPC has been making available required power for Delhi. As the data shows (1st October to 11th October), Delhi DISCOMs have been scheduling only 70 per cent of power that has been made available by the NTPC," tweeted NTPC on Tuesday along with data for eleven days till October 11, 2021.
According to Jain, the NTPC has to give 3,500 Mega Watt (MW) power to Delhi under the power purchase agreement, but today it is giving only half of it. And as per the data provided by the NTPC — this holds more or less true.
In the first 11 days of October, the NTPC's supply to Delhi has fluctuated between 1,846 and 2,285 MW - the highest being still short of the 3,500 MW purchase agreement as mentioned by the Delhi Power Minister.
However, despite this, the NTPC has said that discoms in Delhi are not fully utilising the power being supplied to them. The state-run power giant said that the average gap between what NTPC plants have allocated for Delhi and what has been actually drawn is 594 MW per day.
Earlier in the day, the Union power ministry said in a statement that it has asked NTPC and DVC (Damodar Valley Corporation) to supply as much power as available to Delhi discoms under their respective power purchase agreements.
As per the information received from Delhi discoms, there was no outage on account of power shortage, as the required amount of power was supplied to them, the Union power ministry stated.
But soon after this, Jain issued a statement explaining that Delhi was not experiencing power cuts because his government was providing gas-powered electricity - which is now getting expensive because the Centre has purportedly stopped giving gas to Delhi at controlled rates.
"Despite this, there has been no power cut in the Capital and the Delhi government is ensuring 24×7 electricity to the people," he said, asking the Centre whether there really was a coal shortage in the country or was it deliberately cutting power.
Jain added, "All coal-reliant power plants in Delhi are non-functional. Delhi Government buys electricity from power plants that run on coal located outside Delhi. BJP is spreading rumours on this."