Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) has written to the Union power ministry requesting de-allocation of Delhi’s share of power from Dadri-I generating station of NTPC.
In a letter sent on July 7, DERC requested de-allocation of the entire quantum of Delhi’s share from the ‘costly’ power plant (756MW) for optimisation of power purchase cost of Delhi, which will ultimately benefit the consumers of the city. It has requested that Delhi’s share be permanently reallocated on an ‘urgent basis’ to other needy states, with effect from December 1, 2020 to avoid the burden of fixed cost without any power scheduled to the end consumers of Delhi.
The BSES discoms had stopped scheduling power from the plant in November 2020 after completion of the plant 25 years from its commercial date of operation and had sought exit from Dadri-I plant. The BSES discoms had also approached the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) after NTPC denied the exit.
Sources said that despite the expiry of the agreements with NTPC and not scheduling the power costing Rs 6.5 per unit from the plant, the discoms continue to pay around Rs 35 crore per month as fixed charges to NTPC.
Earlier in March, the ministry of power too had issued guidelines enabling discoms to either continue or exit from power purchasing agreements (PPAs) after completion of the term beyond 25 years, sources said.
In its recent order, the CERC had recognised the position of BSES discoms, that upon completion of 25 years of the plant from its commercial operations date (COD), they can exit the power plant.
