All India Power Engineers Federation demanding reallocation of power from the Central Generation stations
July 27, 2011

Pioneer News Service | Lucknow

Demanding reallocation of power to northern states from the Central Generation stations, the All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) on Monday said that the Centre was obliging private power trading companies by allocating them power excess to their needs.

In a letter written to Union Energy Minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde, AIPEF general secretary, Shailendra Dubey alleged that by allocating additional power to Delhi-based private companies, the Central authorities have helped them in scoopng profits of Rs 765 crore. On the other hand, Dubey claimed, the northern states including UP, Rajsthan, Punjab and Haryana were reeling under acute power crisis.

" Facing serious power shortage, the states are forced to draw more power than allocated to them and are have to pay a heavy price under the head of unscheduled interchange (UI) charges which is unjustified," Dubey has pointed out.

To buttress his claim, the AIPEF office bearer pointed out the discomsowned by Tata and Reliance companies were allocated 194851 Lac units of power in 2010-11 while they needed only 170153 Lac units to cater the region under their distribution network in the national Capital.

"Without investing a single penny, these companies sold this surplus 24698 Lac units through unscheduled interchange and earned a benefit of Rs 765 crore. In contrast, this figure UP has paid an additional Rs 898 crore for overdrawal of power from the northern grid," claimed Dubey.

Stressing that UI has turned out to be a money making proposition for private companies, the AIPEF demanded for reallocation of power from Central pool so that the northern states got a fair deal.