The scare of a power blackout in the national Capital in the coming months may never turn into a grim reality. In a breather to the debt-ridden Reliance-owned BSES distribution companies, the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) came to their rescue and acted as a guarantor on their behalf. The power regulator apprised the doubtful lenders of its recovery proposal and said the plan would help constraint the plunging regulatory assets on the companies. However, city dwellers will have to shell out more on power bills as a hike in tariffs in the coming months is imminent in order to bridge the plunging revenue gap and in the absence of any subsidy.
At a time when BSES Yamuna Power limited (BYPl) and BSES Rajdhani Power limited (BRPl) are fighting a legal battle in the Supreme Court with central power generating company NTPC over the former’s failure to pay dues — the DERC’s move on May 21 came as a big relief to the companies. “The lenders enquired from us whether the revenue gap quoted by the discoms is actually true and we confirmed the amount. We also apprised them of the recovery plan of Rs8,000 crore proposed by us which will be spread over a period of seven years from now,” said PD Sudhakar, chairman, DERC. Till 2011-12, the revenue gap of all the three discoms BRPl, BYPl and Tata Power (TPDDl) stands at a whopping Rs11,400 crore.
According to BSES officials, the company has approached the Power Finance Corporation (PFC), Rural Electrification Corporation (REC), IDBI Bank and State Bank of India. The three discoms together have sought fresh loans amounting to a total of Rs10,000 crore of
which Rs7 crore are towards
the BSES companies and
Rs3 crore for TPDDl.
Meanwhile, the Delhi Government’s Power Department has appealed to the citizens to remove unauthorised structures under high-voltage transmission lines for safety and smooth supply of electricity.
“Unauthorised structures are creating problem in smooth transmission of power in Delhi. Despite having sufficient power, the people have to suffer long power cuts because of tripping of electricity lines which occur due to unauthorised structures and other encroachments in the vicinity of the transmission lines,” said Arun Goyal, Chairman and Managing Director of Delhi Transco limited.