Extra power to Delhi only to benefit pvt cos: Engineers assn
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Lucknow: Were the unscheduled interchange (UI) rates hiked for the benefit of private power distribution companies in Delhi? The question is doing the rounds in the power sector of Uttar Pradesh with the All India Power Engineers Federation demanding Central Electricity Authority (CEA) to scrap the hike.
The federation, in fact, is all set to petition the prime minister office (PMO) on the issue. The federation, in a statement issued on Saturday, insisted that Delhi was allocated 16843.701 million units during 2009-10 even though it consumed 2170.041 million units less.
These units were surrendered to the government, revoking crores within a year. The compensation is almost proportional to the UI charges which an overdrawing state pays to the central agency. The hike in UI charges only led to speculations of the private companies being benefited by it.
‘‘This only shows that Delhi was allocated far more power than it required,’’ the federation said in a statement. ‘‘The companies were benefited even though they did not generate even a single unit,’’ it said. The federation contested that Delhi’s weather is like any other city in north India and therefore, extra allocation of power needs to be checked.
Significantly, Delhi has already been allocated another 4,000 Mw of power in the wake of Commonwealth Games, with federation apprehensive of the move translating into a further crisis.
UP is already reeling under a severe power crisis in the wake of ever-growing gap in the demand and supply of power. Often, the state has to resort to overdrawing of power for which it pays through its nose.