Delhi: Power crisis looms large as blackout warning issued for city
Tata Power on Saturday asked consumers in Delhi to use power “judiciously” and cited depleting stocks, stoking fear of power cuts even as central government officials said the required quantity of gas will be supplied to Bawana and Pragati plants.
FollowDelhi could soon face a power shortage with the coal crisis across the country as the national capital's Power Minister, Satyendra Jain has warned that there is only one day stock of coal left in the thermal power station from where Delhi gets electricity.
Tata Power on Saturday asked consumers in Delhi to use power “judiciously” and cited depleting stocks, stoking fear of power cuts even as central government officials said the required quantity of gas will be supplied to Bawana and Pragati plants.
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said Delhi could soon face a power shortage with the coal crisis across the country affecting supply at power plants that supply electricity to the capital as well.
He has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking intervention to make adequate arrangements for coal at power plants and gas to generation plants.
“Delhi could face a power crisis. I am personally keeping aclose watch over the situation. We are trying our best to avoid it. In themeanwhile, I wrote a letter to honourable PM seeking his personalintervention,” Kejriwal tweeted.
Delhi Power Minister Satyendar Jain held a meeting with therepresentatives of power distribution companies (discoms) to discuss the"power crisis".
Speaking to ANI after the meeting, Jain said, "There isan acute shortage of coal in coal-fired power plants across the country. Thereis only one day's stock left in the plants from which Delhi gets electricity,there is no coal at all."
Appealing to the government to transport coal to Delhi, Jain said, "There is an appeal to the central government to transport coal soon using railway wagons."
He further informed that all the plants are already running on only 55% capacity, instead of the full 3.4 lakh megawatt (MW) capacity. "Today, only 1 lakh MW demand is left instead of 3.4 MW demand, but still,the power plants are not able to meet this demand," he said.
A bulk of Delhi’s power allocation is met by the NTPC plant in Dadri and thermal power plant in Jhajjar. There are no thermal power plantsin Delhi anymore as three have been shut over the past 12 years.
