Centre asked to step in as Haryana, Delhi spar over electricity

THE SCORCHING HEAT HAS PUSHED DELHI’S POWER DEMAND -- THE PEAK DEMAND TOUCHED A PEAK OF 7,070MW

HT Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court has asked the Centre to intervene in a dispute between Delhi and Haryana over their claim to the allocation of 748MW of electricity generated by the Dadri-ii thermal power plant, noting that there was an “emergent need” to examine and balance the interests and requirements of the two states.

“Upon an overall consideration...it would appear to be expedient to require the MOP (Ministry of Power) to examine the rival claims, consider the validity of the asserted right of the petitioners and GNCTD for continued allocation of Dadri-ii power, and explore avenues which may safeguard the interests and projected needs of the two states and take an appropriate decision based on a holistic examination of all the facts that may be placed before it,” said justice Yashwant Varma in an interim order on June 1.

On March 30, the court stayed an MOP order which, alluding to a purported surrender of power generated by the Dadri-ii thermal power station by the Delhi government, transferred the 748 MW allocation to Haryana.

BSES, represented by senior advocate Sandeep Sethi, however, submitted that the temporary allocation and surrender of Dadri-ii power cannot be viewed as a permanent surrender of power by the discoms.

The Centre, represented by additional solicitor general Chetan Sharma, however, argued that the authority to allocate power from Central generating stations lies solely and exclusively within the domain of the Union government and that the Delhi government has, on July 6, 2015, permanently surrendered its allocated power from Dadri-ii and that such reallocation was not being done for the first time.

The scorching heat has pushed Delhi’s power demand -- the peak demand touched a high of 7,070 megawatts (MW) on May 19, the year’s highest so far and a record for May -- largely due to an increase in the usage of cooling appliances in view of the higherthan-normal daily temperatures. This year, power utilities have projected the peak demand to breach 8,000MW.

The court said that considering the urgency and the shortage of power as claimed by Haryana, the MOP should proceed in the matter with due expedition as the current allocation to Haryana ends in October 2022.

The order was passed while dealing with the aspect of the vacation of an interim order passed on the petition by BSES Rajdhani Power Limited on March 30.