http://www.tribuneindia.com/2011/20110802/harplus.htm#2
Engineers demand reallocation of power
Manish Sirhindi
Tribune News Service

Panipat, August 1
The All-India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) has asked the Union Government to review the power allocation to the northern states, except Delhi, which despite contributing power to the Northern Gird end up paying huge penalties due to disparity in the allocation of power.

In a letter to the Union Power Ministry, Shailendra Dubey, general secretary of the federation, stated that the northern states were paying heavy penalty in lieu of unscheduled interchange (UI) charges paid for overdrawing power from the grid to meet power demands due to less allocation of power. While private discoms in Delhi were earning huge money by simply surrendering the surplus power allocated to them.

He said during 2010-11, the Delhi discoms earned Rs 764.41 crore by surrendering surplus power allocated to them and that even without generating a single unit. On the other hand, states like Haryana, Punjab, UP and Rajasthan ended up paying heavy penalties. As per the official figures, Haryana topped the charts by paying Rs 1,133.72 crore as UI charges, UP paid Rs 897.62 crore, Rajasthan paid Rs 880.37 crore and Punjab deposited Rs 521.03 crore.

Even small states like Uttarakhand had to pay paid Rs 176.89 crore on account of UI charges.

Figures showed that Delhi had a surplus of 24,698 lakh units (LU) during 2010-11 while Haryana overdrew 32,325 LU, Rajasthan overdrew 25,682 LU, UP 15,283 LU and Punjab 9,252 LU as the power allocation to these states is far less than that of Delhi.

Dubey said all northern states had been allocated less power while Delhi had been allocated 5,000 MW of surplus power, which was much more than its requirement.

He said the private discoms in Delhi were earning huge profits by surrendering extra power allocated to them while the northern states were being forced to shell out hefty amounts for overdrawing power.

He said the federation had requested the Union Government to issue directions for the reallocation of power in the northern region so that no utilities could earn money regularly by simply surrendering power.