DEF report indicts BSES
TNN 23 July 2009|

NEW DELHI: Power discom BSES seems to be heading for more trouble over last month's power crisis in the capital. In the preliminary report of an
investigation launched by Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) over long outages in June, the regulator confirms that BSES was indeed guilty of not bidding a high enough purchase price from the power exchange despite its availability.

Though the final report is expected in 10-15 days, senior officials said BSES's reluctance to buy `expensive' power had led to the crisis which "could have been averted''. Officials did not rule out the possibility of penalising the Reliance-backed discom if found guilty in the final report. "Power was available in the exchange and states like Rajasthan were buying a huge quantum during that period. Intial reports suggest that BSES was always out-bid by other states because they did not quote higher than Rs 6/unit when power was selling at Rs 11-13/unit,'' said a senior official on condition of anonymity.

BSES blamed another discom in Delhi for refusing to sell their surplus power to them and instead selling it to other states. The regulator is not ready to accept BSES's arguments that expensive power could have led to higher tariff, as was quoted by BSES chairman Lalit Jalan last month in TOI. "Whatever expenses are incurred by discoms for uncontrolled parameters are reimbursed in tru-up costs,'' said an official.

DERC has also sought full details of power sold by both discoms in June to analyse where the discoms faulted. A legal notice was served to discoms for their loadshedding data and DERC is now interpreting where their June tie-ups failed and why.