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Power from the central generating stations (CGS) will be allotted by the Central government to the states on their request, the ministry of power said on Saturday.
The Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) has no jurisdiction in the matter, it said.
The Delhi government and the city's power regulator DERC on Wednesday wrote to the Centre asking it to ensure adequate electricity supply to save the national capital from blackouts during the summer season.
The power ministry had issued instructions to the Northern Regional Power Committee (NRPC) to re-allocate Delhi's share of 728 MW from the NTPC Dadri-II plant to Haryana from 1 April.
However, in an urgent hearing earlier in the day, the Delhi High Court stayed the implementation of the power ministry's order, which was issued on Monday, they said, adding that the next date of hearing in the matter is April 1.
The secretary of the DERC in a letter to the ministry's secretary requested it to "immediately withdraw" the reallocation order to avoid blackout in certain parts of the national capital and to meet continuous supply of power to run essential services like the Delhi Metro rail and hospitals.
The ministry of power, in a statement issued today, said if any reallocation is to be done, it is only on the request of the state government and that also in case any other state is willing to take the surrendered power.
"The DERC jurisdiction extends only to fixation of tariff and giving advice and direction to Discoms of their State. The DERC can not give any direction to the central or the state governments," it added.
In case of NTPC Dadri-II Thermal Power Plant, the central government said it had made allocation of this power to Delhi and Uttar Pradesh.
"Delhi power minister Satyendar Jain via his letter had surrendered power from 11 central generating stations which also include Dadri stage-II thermal power plant of NTPC, with immediate effect and to reallocate the same to other needy states. As per the said letter Delhi had surrendered full 735 MW allocation permanently," it said.
"Thereafter, government of India wrote to all states, that this power which has been surrendered by Delhi is available for reallocation. The government of Delhi did not protest or withdraw their letter of surrender. The reallocation of power surrendered by Delhiwas done to other states as and when other states requested for it."
Centre said Delhi government did not protest against these reallocation at any time.
"The balance power from Dadri stage-II to an extent of 728 MW was available for reallocation and, accordingly, on 28 March, 2022, the same has been given to Haryana based on their request. No request for withdrawal of the surrendered share had been received from Government of Delhi to the Government of India till 28.03.2022. It was only after reallocation of this power on 28 March, that the Government of NCT of Delhi woke up on 30 March and wrote to MoP to restore the Delhi share from Dadri stage II. Government of NCT of Delhi has quoted a letter from DERC dated 6th January, 2022 which was written to NTPC and a letter of DERC dated 14th October, 2021," the Centre said
"However, as pointed above DERC has no jurisdiction in the matter of allocation of power from central generating stations," it added
"It may also be noted that Delhi have relinquished their share of 756 MW from Dadri-I indicating that this power is surplus. Thus, if Delhi is really under crisis and have concern about their consumers, they should not have surrendered their share from Dadri-I. As the reallocation to Haryana has already happened on 28 March, any further reallocation can only be after hearing Haryana as Haryana is now also an affected party and any withdrawal would impact their power adequacy plans."
News agency PTI reported that said that the reallocation of power from Delhi to Haryana caught electricity distribution companies (discoms) unaware. The city's discoms have already surrendered power allocation from the Dadri-I plant, citing high cost, from November 2020.
"The reallocation of power to Delhi from Dadri-II is also beyond comprehension as the power purchase agreement of discoms for scheduling power from Dadri-II is valid and in force till July 30, 2035, when it completes stipulated 25 years," the PTI report said.
The reallocation from the Dadri-II plant will pose a big problem before the discoms as such a large quantum of power (728 MW) at short notice may not be easily available at the power exchange, where the rates are already fluctuating between ₹10-15 per unit, the officials said.
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