State rakes in crores by selling power
Ruchika M Khanna
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, April 10
The unexpected showers across Haryana during most of this week may have spelt doom for farmers, but it has helped the state power utilities rake in crores by selling its surplus power. The Haryana power utilities has reportedly earned Rs 30 crore in the past six days by selling its power.

The rain had brought down the temperature drastically and also eased the demand for power in the agriculture sector. This meant that the power demand during this week fell down by almost 100 lakh units (LUs). From a demand of 720 LUs, the demand during this week remained static at 600-650 LUs, leaving the state power utilities with surplus power.

This surplus power is now being traded on the national power exchange, Indian Energy Exchange Ltd. Officials in the power utilities told The Tribune that they had been selling an average of 50 LUs per day through the power exchange and earning Rs 5 crore a day, by selling power at an average rate of Rs 10 per unit.

This is for the first time that the state power utilities have earned profit by selling its power through the exchange. Earlier, the power-deficit state had been making only day-ahead purchases on the exchange to meet its peak load demand.

Officials in the Haryana Power Generation Corporation said as against 348 LUs of power that the state was expected to generate through its own generation, they were providing almost 430 LUs per day.