Delhi may face power crisis, says Kejriwal

New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Saturday said the national capital could face a power crisis and that his government is taking adequate steps to avoid such a situation.

He said he has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his intervention in making adequate arrangements of coal and gas to generation plants supplying electricity to the city. "Delhi could face a power crisis. I am personally keeping a close watch over the situation. We are trying our best to avoid it. In the meanwhile, I wrote a letter to Hon'ble PM seeking his personal intervention," Kejriwal tweeted. In his letter to Modi, the Delhi CM noted that the city was facing coal shortage since August. "I draw your attention to the prevailing coal shortage situation that is continuing since August/September for the third month in a row," the letter stated. "It has affected the power generation from the major central generating plants supplying power to Delhi," it said. Kejriwal requested the prime minister's intervention for adequate coal to be diverted from other plants to plants like Dadri-II and Jhajjar TPS, which are supplying to Delhi. He also requested gas allocations to Bawana, Pragati -I and GTPS supplying power to the city.

Coal shortage across the country has led to reduced power generation and Delhi might go through intermittent rotational load shedding in coming days, power discom Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited (TPDDL) CEO Ganesh Srinivasan said on Saturday. Coal-based power stations supplying electricity to Delhi discoms have coal stocks to meet generation requirements for one-two days against 20 days as per applicable regulations, he said in a statement.

As a result, Delhi might go through intermittent rotational load shedding. However, proactive steps by both Delhi as well as the central government for handling the grim situation are under consideration to arrange or divert coal for power generation," Srinivasan said. No immediate reaction on the development was available from the Delhi government. TPDDL, which supplies power to north and northwest Delhi areas, has started sending SMS to its customers urging them to use electricity judiciously.