BSES RAJDHANI FINED R S 1.68- C R FOR MAKING YOU SWEAT.

A PENALTY of Rs 1.68 crore has been slapped on Delhi's biggest power distribution company BSES Rajdhani Power Limited ( BRPL).

It has been accused of triggering a power crisis earlier in June by not arranging sufficient electricity despite clear indicators that a severe summer loomed large.

Even in the thick of the crisis, the company preferred to cut operational expenses and didn't buy additional power that was easily available, a probe has found.

BRPL services nearly 14 lakh households across south, west and central Delhi.

Nearly 80 per cent of load- shedding across Delhi in June was in the areas serviced by the company.

Arun Kanchan, who was then the company's chief executive officer and was removed last week, has been fined Rs 1 lakh for violating rules by drawing excess electricity from the northern grid.

City's power regulator the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) conducted the probe over the last three months, compiling load-shedding data from different sources and interviewing several stake holders including residents.

"The overall conduct of BRPL and its CEO is one of utter disregard of their duties including their duty to maintain grid disciplineC* BRPL (has) tried to blame everybody in the system (for the power crisis) except themselves," the order said.

The DERC has also laid new guidelines to reduce power cuts. Companies that shed more than one per cent of the total power they supply in a month without valid reasons can now be asked to pay up to Rs 5 lakh for every two lakh kilowatt hour units of power cut.

A BSES spokesman said they were studying the ramifications of the order. The company can appeal against the order in the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity. An official, however, said one of the two DERC members who passed the order pointed out that other power companies too resorted to load-shedding in June, suggesting the BSES was singled out.

DERC's investigation revealed that BRPL invited the crisis by ignoring repeated warnings, including those given out by BBC, that Delhi was in for a severe summer and that adequate power arrangements were required to tackle it, the report states.

The regulator found BRPL failed to make strong power purchase arrangements and states dishonoured them easily as demand grew in their areas. But the company didn't learn from the goof- up and acted miserly by not buying electricity that was available in surplus at the power exchange at a price higher than normal.

" States like Rajasthan bought 1,100 mega watts of electricity in June but the BRPL virtually didn't buy anything. They acted so miserly they even refused to buy power that the North Delhi Power Limited ( NDPL) had offered at a justified surcharge," said a DERC official.

BRPL overdrew so heavily from the Northern Grid to make up for the shortfall that it committed 672 overdrawal violations in June, risking a grid collapse because of low frequency on several occasions, the report states.

BRPL subsequently tried to justify the failure by silly arguments. The DERC ripped apart one such contention that much more loadshedding was carried out before power was privatised in Delhi.

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