BSES discoms welcome SC directive to NTPC

Reliance Infra-backed BSES discoms today welcomed the Supreme Court's directive to NTPC not to cut power supply to them till March 26 for not clearing outstanding dues of over Rs 300 crore.
The two BSES discoms, which supply power in 70 per cent areas of Delhi, also urged the Delhi government and Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission to adopt a "constructive" approach to avoid "unnecessary crises of this nature".
"We are extremely grateful to the Supreme Court for its kind intervention on our petition, restraining NTPC from cutting power supplies," the BSES discoms said in a statement.
The apex court directed BSES to pay Rs 50 crore within two weeks and posted the case for final hearing on March 26. Till then, state-owned National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) will continue to supply power.

The distribution companies had yesterday approached the Supreme Court against NTPC's notice threatening to cut off power supply for not clearing outstanding dues.
NTPC had last week served notices of power supply suspension to BSES discoms and said electricity supplies will be snapped if they do not clear their dues by February 10.

BSES discoms had informed the government that they did not have money to buy power and the city may reel under long outages if funds are not provided to them.
"We look forward to long term resolution of the fundamental underlying issue of past under-recoveries of nearly Rs 20,000 crore, when the court takes up our petition on March 26 for final disposal," the companies said.

They said a "positive engagement" by the Delhi government and DERC will ensure reliability and quality of power at optimal prices for consumers in Delhi.
On Monday, the Delhi government had recommended to the DERC to revoke the licenses of BSES discoms if they resort to long outages in areas of their operation citing fund crunch to arrange power.
Following the recommendation, DERC had served notices on two BSES discoms to present their case on the issue. After DERC served the notices on BSES discoms, they approached the Appellate Tribunal for Electricity to restrain the regulator in taking any punitive action against them.

The tribunal on Wednesday had asked DERC not to take a final decision on revoking licences of BSES discoms without its permission.