Re-allocate power to north states, Centre urged

RUPNAGAR:
HT Correspondent
The All-India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) has urged the Centre to reallocate power to northern states, including Punjab and Haryana, from the central sector power stations situated in the northern region “so that no power utility is allowed to earn money regularly through surrendering of surplus power“.
The AIPEF has written to the union power minister in this regard. According to AIPEF chairman Padamjit Singh, except for Delhi, all power utilities of northern India are paying heavy penalty in lieu of unscheduled interchange (UI) charges for over drawing power from the northern grid due to shortage of power in their states.

He said distribution companies (Discoms) in Delhi were earning money through UI by surrendering surplus power.
As per an official record, during the financial year Delhi Discoms have earned Rs.764.41 crore through UI and all other states, particularly Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, paid heavy penalty for unscheduled over drawing.

Even small state like Uttarakhand paid Rs.176.89 crore on account of UI charge, he said. He alleged that this was happening because all these states were short of power as Delhi had been allocated with surplus power as per their requirement. Official data shows that Delhi had surplus of 24,698 lakh units of electricity during the financial year 2010-11,while Haryana overdrew 32,325 lakh units, Rajasthan, UP and Punjab overdrew 25,682 lakh units, 15,283 lakh units and 9,252 lakh units, respectively.

About 5,000 MW of additional power was allocated to Delhi in the name of Commonwealth Games. Even 2,500 MW had been allocated from the Damodar Valley Corporation, which is far from Delhi.