South faces power pangs from Feb 9

NT PC may cut supply to K’t aka, Tel an gan a, A Pover unpaid dues

Electricity shortages loom over five states at a time when the respective governments would like to ensure a round-the-clock supply in the election season.

NTPC has issued notices to Telangana, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh for “regulating power supply” from February 9 owing to non-payment of outstanding dues for more than two months. All these states are governed by nonBJP parties.

NTPC has outstanding dues of ~7,859 crore, of which Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh account for the most, said executives of the staterun power company. The three Southern states, which together owe ~5,837 crore to NTPC, have not made any payment for over two months now — the maximum period of default.

UP is also delaying its payment, but has not defaulted yet.

At ~6,127 crore, UP currently has the highest outstanding dues to several power suppliers, including NTPC, the ministry of power’s PRAAPTI data portal revealed. There are worse states – Rajasthan with ~2,404 crore and Punjab with ~1,041 crore dues over 500 days.

The notices, issued by NTPC under the CERC (Regulation of power supply) Regulations, 2010, state, “In case of the outstanding dues or in case the required letter of credit or any other agreed payment security mechanism is not maintained as per the agreement, the generating company may serve a notice for regulation of power supply, on the defaulting entity, for reducing the drawl schedule.”

NTPC, while issuing the notices to these states, has said it would regulate power to these states from February 9 onwards. The initial regulation would for three months or till the clearing of the dues, said the notice. BusinessStandard has reviewed the notices.