Lack of transmission lines hits power re-allocation from Delhi to Telangana

The Delhi government’s proposal to re-allocate its share of costly power to other States is not going as planned due to lack of transmission lines.

“The Delhi government took up with the Centre the issue of reallocation of power from some plants last year. But because there is a transmission constraint and Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd has not yet completed the lines, power cannot be evacuated,” Praveer Sinha, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Tata Power Delhi Distribution Ltd, told BusinessLine .

Telangana is the only State that has come forward to buy the expensive re-allocated power. “They want the entire power from Aravali’s Jhajjar plant and also some power from NTPC’s Dadri plant from April 1, 2016. But, infrastructure constraints are proving a deterrent,” he said.

Last November, Telangana agreed to purchase 926 MW from NTPC’s Dadri power plant, which included Delhi’s share of 91 MW, and 1,067 MW from Aravali’s Jhajjar power plant, which included Delhi’s share of 693 MW.

Aravali Power is a joint venture company with 50 per cent shares held by NTPC Ltd, 25 per cent by Haryana Power Generation Company Ltd and 25 per cent by Indraprastha Power Generation Company Ltd owned by the Delhi government.

Delhi government had, last year, asked the Ministry of Power to reallocate 2,250 MW of electricity to other States. The Telangana deal alone would have reallocated 784 MW of power.

Sinha said the cost of power from Aravali was ₹6 a unit, which is more than the utility’s average power purchase cost of ₹5.8-5.9 a unit.

“If the Telangana deal had worked out, our power purchase cost would have reduced by about 10-15 paise a unit and it would also have reflected in the consumer tariffs. It would have made a substantial difference for now,” Sinha said.

He added, “Major high cost power for us is from Delhi’s State-owned power plants like the Bawana power plant from which we are getting electricity at ₹9 a unit.” Meanwhile, the distribution utility is also focussing on rooftop solar installations in its area.

Sinha said already a capacity of 2 MW of rooftop solar has been installed.

“Our target is that by 2022, a total of 400 MW will be the installed capacity of rooftop solar in the Tata Power Delhi Distribution area,” he added.

The company also will source 180 MW of solar power from SunEdison from the next financial year. The cost of this solar power will be ₹5.9 unit for the next 25 years.

Tata Power Delhi Distribution supplies around 1,700-1,800 MW of power at peak demand periods to it consumers.

COMMENT NOW