With Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) chairperson Arup Roy Choudhury not seeing eye-to-eye on the issue of electricity supply, the Capital’s denizens may be staring at frequent and long outages during the blistering summer months this year.

Apart from the missing spark, the steadily rising temperatures from next week onwards are likely to make their lives harder.

While the Delhi government plans to reduce its dependence on the NTPC by producing its own power, the corporation has retaliated by saying it has enough potential buyers in case the Capital doesn’t want to buy its electricity.

Choudhury has said the output of the public sector company’s power plants at Dadri, Jhajjar and Badarpur could be sold to other buyers.

He said the NTPC had made huge investments in these power plants as the government wanted the company to supply more power to Delhi.

“However, if the AAP government decides that it does not want to take any power from these plants, we will divert the supply to other users,” he added.

Most of the power from the Jhajjar plant in Haryana was being supplied to the Andhra Pradesh state distribution company, Choudhury disclosed.

Similarly, he said, the Indian Railways was ready to buy the entire output of the Dadri thermal plant.

However, Choudhury also cautioned the AAP government that once agreements were signed for selling this power to alternative buyers, it would not be possible to divert it to Delhi at the time of peak summer shortage.

Currently, Delhi has a peak shortage of 4600 mw, which NTPC plugs to avoid blackouts and outages in the Capital.

“It would not be possible to fulfil this requirement as NTPC would have then committed its entire output to other buyers, who would not allow the company to disrupt their operations,” he added.

'Alternative sources'

The NTPC reaction was necessitated after Kejriwal recently said his government would explore “alternative sources” of electricity to reduce its dependence on NTPC, which is often expensive.

Meanwhile, the power tussle involving the Delhi government, the power generation and distribution companies, and the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) is set to put consumers at the receiving end, while the discoms are likely to emerge as the sole beneficiary.

The total power production in Delhi is 1100 MW, while the remaining 4500-5500 MW is purchased from other states and central power generation units

Senior power department officials said the short supply of electricity to Delhi would force the discoms to procure expensive electricity on short-term agreements. Consequently, it would lead to power tariff hikes every three months in the form of the power purchase adjustment cost (PPCA) as determined by the power regulator.

While electricity is available for Rs 3-6 per unit through long-term agreements, the discoms have to purchase the same at Rs 18- 20 per unit during crises.

The peak power demand of Delhi is on constant rise and likely to touch the 6500 mw-mark this summer.

The total power production in Delhi is 1100 MW, while the remaining 4500-5500 MW is purchased from other states and central power generation units.

Senior officials said that despite the face-off with NTPC, the city government has no option but to buy electricity from it.

The corporation supplies nearly 3000 mw to Delhi, which no other state or power generation company is capable of.

“Only Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand are self-reliant to meet their power demand, but don’t have any power to spare for Delhi. All other states have to depend on the Central power generation units. So Delhi would have no option but to buy electricity from NTPC,” a senior official said.

“The AAP government’s plan to bid for a coal block and produce electricity is a distant dream and unlikely to be completed in the next five years,” he added.

If the power distributors in Delhi plan to buy electricity from hydel power stations, it is also unlikely to serve the purpose.

“The efficiency of these plants decreases when heavy rains carry a huge amount of silt in the waters. Similarly, if the water level goes down in summers, the turbines cannot move and hence power production goes down,” officials explained.

Also, since the DERC is a quasi judicial body, it is free from the city government’s control and influence. Therefore, the government’s opposition to a power tariff hike would bear no fruit, point out officials.

NTPC eyes new project

NTPC, the country’s largest power producer, is reportedly planning to acquire a plant with up to 4,000 MW capacity for about Rs 20,000 crore. The company is in talks with two-three firms, including stranded projects of private companies, and they are at advance stages, a source said.

NTPC is likely to acquire a 3,000-4,000 MW power plant.

“The deal may be announced in two-three months,” he said, adding that it will acquire the project on 70:30 debt equity ratio.

The power firm had said in January that it has identified 7-8 private power projects as potential acquisition targets and will take a final call on them before end of FY’15.