Delhi may buy power from Kawas, Gandhar

Delhi may buy around 300 Mw of power generated from NTPC's Kawas and Gandhar plants at a price of Rs 3.30-4 per unit to partly take care of its power shortage.

As the Kawas and Gandhar plants do not have gas supply based on the administered price mechanism, they are running on costly liquefied natural gas bought in the spot market.

"Delhi may have access to this excess capacity as the committed power offtake of southern states has been reduced due to the increased cost of power from these plants," government sources said.

The Kawas and Gandhar plants have an installed capacity of 645 Mw and 648 Mw, respectively and 300 Mw is the ideal capacity of these plants. The power may be supplied to Delhi via the eastern region transmission system.

"The power ministry has asked for early completion of the project so that power may be brought through the link," government sources added.

Despite such efforts, Delhi may still face a shortage of around 200 Mw. To take care of this shortage, the power ministry has also asked the Northern Region Link Dispatch Centre to implement load shedding on a rotational basis so that no area is left without power supply for more than one hour.

Delhi is undergoing a power shortage due to the unavailability of around 300 Mw from Nathpa Jhakri in Himachal Pradesh, 210 Mw from Badarpur and around 90 Mw from NTPC's Singrauli plant in Uttar Pradesh.

However, VS Verma, member (planning), Central Electricity Authority, said, "It will be extremely difficult to meet Delhi's peak power requirement because of its inefficient power distribution system."