Delhi Government today dedicated to public power transmission projects worth Rs 136 crore aimed to strengthen the electricity supply in the national capital.
Delhi Power Minister Satyendar Jain dedicated the projects spread over six assembly constituencies and said it will benefit areas such as Wazirpur, Ashok Vihar, Shalimar Bagh, Pitampura, Palam, Dwarka, Kakrola, Matiala, Delhi Metro, Bawana, Narela, Okhla, Jasola, Kanjhawala, Rohini Extension and Karola.
"Delhi government is committed to provide uninterrupted power supply at a reasonable price to public and has taken various initiatives to strengthen the transmission and distribution network. These projects will cater to the needs of large part of the national capital," a Government statement quoted Jain as saying during an event held in Dwarka.
These projects will help distribution companies draw sufficient and reliable power from the state grid and make Delhi a power cut-free area, he added.
The Minister informed that 34 lakh of the total 42 lakh electricity consumers using up to 400 units per month have been benefited by Government's subsidy.
"Their electricity bills have been halved. The power tariff may further come down if Union Government withdraws the costly power allocated to Delhi," he said.
Speaking on the issue of redressal of false power theft cases, he said that DERC has been asked to frame policy that DISCOMS would only be able to file case against consumer if he has been found guilty by Public Grievances Cell.
Jain noted the demand for electricity in the city is "increasing every year" and said that it is a challenging task to keep pace with the increasing demand.
Replying to a question Goyal said that power purchase
agreements (PPAs) are sacrosanct legal agreement entered into by different power distribution companies and the Centre has no role in cancelling or allowing anybody to surrender power.
The Delhi government has written to the Centre several times over "surrendering" over 2265 mw of expensive power.
"The Central government has no role in cancelling or allowing anybody to surrender power. At best they can offer it to any other state which is a willing purchaser and where there is transmission ability," the minister said.
"While Telagnana did offer to buy power for a few months but for lack of transmission ability they could not possibly purchase that power from Delhi but it is beyond our control to do anything about it," he said.
"But instead of only harping about surrendering power, I think we should all focus on improving efficiencies reducing AT&C losses and improving the working of these states and ensuring for efficient utililsation of available capacities which each state has," the minister said.
In a significant transformation, India has become power surplus from chronic power shortage. Record capacity addition of around one-fifth of current conventional power capacity and solar power capacity addition of 157 per cent in the last two years led to a boost in power generation, the minister said.
The highest-ever increase in transmission lines and sub-stations improved the transmission scenario resulting in energy deficit falling to lowest ever of 2.1 per cent in the last fiscal, he said.
He further said that today, not a single power plant faces shortage of coal as opposed to the impending power crisis in 2014 when two-thirds of major power plants had critical coal stocks of less than seven days.
"Working on war footing, our government completely eliminated coal shortage in the country. In line with achieving the target of doubling coal production to 100 crore tonnes by 2020, the last two years witnessed the highest ever growth in coal production of 7.4 crore tonnes," Goyal said.
Stressing that its government was focused on addressing the root problems of the power sector, the minister said that every discom is expected to eliminate losses by 2019-20 with potential savings of over Rs 1,80,000 crore every year from 2019.
"UDAY was designed through extensive stakeholder consultations and has been a game changer for States," he said.
