Centre, states meet to take up power crisis in North

Power Secretary R V Shahi will meet the power secretaries of the northern states on Saturday and ask them to follow grid norms and discipline to avert a collapse.

This comes as power shortage, pegged at 4,500 Mw, looms over north India this summer. "The meeting with the secretaries will be for implementation of certain decisions taken in the previous days. We are going to ensure that load management is done in such a way that grid collapses are averted," Shahi said.

Last week, the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission had warned state electricity boards and distribution companies against overdrawing from the northern grid after public sector transmission utility Power Grid Corporation lodged a complaint.

While Uttar Pradesh has been overdrawing up to 700 Mw, Delhi was forced to overdraw about 450 Mw last night when the Badarpur and Pragati power plants were shut down following a fire at the Ballabgarh substation.

Delhi witnessed close to199 Mw of load shedding on Tuesday. The maximum demand met was 3,027 Mw, with the shortage in allocation hovering around 400 Mw.

The total demand was 3,226 Mw.

Delhi Transco expects the demand to go up to 3,900 Mw by June-end. However, it is confident of meeting that demand.

"We have arranged for 2,000 Mw from our share of central allocation, 300 Mw from Orissa, 200 Mw from Himachal Pradesh and 100 Mw from the Tehri Hydro Development Corporation," a Delhi Transco official said. Delhi generates around 1,450 Mw.

According to industry sources, Delhi, unlike Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata, has not made any progress in isolating itself from the grid during power shortage.

This is because the city draws much of its power needs from outside.The process of isolation, also called islanding, will prevent evacuation of power to the grid and make it available for the metro.

However, the transmission company believes the situation may improve within a week's time when the offline units of power generation plants of Dadri, Singrauli, Rihand and Auriya come online after their annual maintenance and repair.

The total generation capacity of these offline units is around 1,500 Mw, of which Delhi has an allocation of 400 Mw.