Parts of northern India including Delhi will be compelled to buy expensive electricity from Thursday as NTPC has said that it will cut capacity by 1,200 MW due to coal shortage.

If the Northern utilities do not make back up arrangements then the parts of the region will be facing severe power shortages.

The public sector power producer has informed the distribution companies about its decision.

When contacted, an NTPC official said that 700 MW out of 2,640 MW in its Dadri unit and 500 MW out of 2,000 MW in Singrauli will not be available for the region.

The official said that NTPC is trying its best to run the stations on existing coal stocks.

On the cost of the electricity, the official said, “Delhi has surrendered 693 MW of electricity from Jhajjar station which is a joint venture of Delhi, Haryana and NTPC.

Further, 1,300 MW power on R-LNG is available in the Northern Grid from NTPC stations, which can also be scheduled at any time.

But, this is not been taken. The argument given by the utilities is that they are sourcing electricity from Bawana – which is a new plant, and power from there is expensive.”

NTPC is supposed to communicate planned outages at the monthly meetings of the regional load dispatch centres.

But for instances where coal is not available or rakes are not available, notice can be given just a day ahead.

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