Satyendar Jain, the Delhi Power Minister, met with members of power distribution firms (discoms) in Delhi on Saturday to address the “power crisis” in the national capital, claiming that the thermal power station from which Delhi obtains energy only had a one-day supply of coal.
Satyendar Jain, the Delhi Power Minister, met with members of power distribution firms (discoms) in Delhi on Saturday to address the “power crisis” in the national capital, claiming that the thermal power station from which Delhi obtains energy only had a one-day supply of coal.
“There is a critical scarcity of coal in coal-fired power plants across the nation,” Jain told ANI following the meeting.
There is just one day’s supply of coal remaining in the facilities that provide energy to Delhi.
“There is a request to the central government to deliver coal quickly utilising railway waggons,” the Delhi Power Minister said, appealing to the Centre to bring coal to the national capital.
“He further stated that all of the plants are now operating at just 55% of their maximum capacity, rather than the entire 3.4 lakh megawatt (MW) capacity.”
“Today, just 1 lakh MW of demand remains instead of 3.4 MW, yet power plants are still unable to satisfy this demand,” he explained.
According to Jain, Delhi does not have any coal facilities of its own; instead, the national capital has only modest gas plants.
“We have a 1300 MW gas-fired facility at Bawana, where the gas supply was cut off yesterday.
Furthermore, the national capital lacks its own coal plant.
There are just three minor gas-producing facilities in the area “he stated
He added that at the moment, Delhi is reliant on the Centre’s plant, which is only turned on when we require power.
“If we don’t get more electricity from the Centre in the next two days, there would be a full blackout in Delhi,” Jain warned.
In order to alleviate Delhi’s power problem, Jain stated that the government is willing to purchase pricey electricity at this time.
“Our hydroelectric plants’ capacity has also been lowered from 45,000 MW to 30,000 MW.
However, during this peak hour, we want the plants to create 45,000 MW of power.
We’ve also signed power purchase agreements between 35,000 MW-45,000 MW with NTPC.
Even yet, Jain continued, “we are willing to buy the pricey power today at a cost of Rs 20 per unit.”
Furthermore, Jain referred to the current electricity situation as a “man-made disaster.”
“It appears that this power outage is a man-made catastrophe, just as the oxygen shortage that occurred during COVID-19’s second wave was likewise man-made,” he added.
