Delhi Power Minister meets distribution firms to discuss electricity crisis in the capital

Delhi Power Minister Satyendar Jain held a meeting with the power distribution companies on Saturday in Delhi to discuss the potential "power crisis" in the national capital. After the meeting ended, Satyendar Singh spoke to the media and said that Delhi has only one day’s stock of coal left in the thermal power station.

He said, "There is an acute shortage of coal in coal-fired power plants across the country. There is only one day's stock left in the plants from which Delhi gets electricity, there is no coal at all."

The Power Minister appealed to the court and asked for support, "There is an appeal to the central government to transport coal soon using railway wagons."

He also revealed that the plants are running at only 55% of the capacity and not the full 3.4 lakh megawatt (MW) capacity. He said, "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."

Satyendar Jain said that Delhi does have any coal plant of its own, the national capital has only small plants which produce gas. "We have a 1300 MW plant in Bawana, which runs on gas, where the gas supply was stopped yesterday. And the national capital does not have any coal plant of its own. Only three small plants are there which produce gas," he said.

Delhi dependent on power from the Centre

Satyendar Jain further stated that the national capital is currently dependent on the plant that is under the central government. He added, "After two days, there will be a complete blackout in the whole of Delhi if we do not receive more power supply from the Centre."

He further added that the only way to solve the power crisis is by purchasing expensive electricity.

He said, "The capacity of our hydroelectric plants has also reduced from 45,000 MW to 30,000 MW. But, we want the plants to generate 45,000 MW of electricity during this peak hour. We have also made power purchase agreements with NTPC of 35,000 MW-45,000 MW. Still, we are ready to buy the expensive electricity today at the cost of Rs 20 per unit."

He went ahead and termed this crisis as a 'man-made crisis' and compared it to the oxygen disaster during the second wave of COVID.

(with ANI inputs)