The national capital is likely to face an acute power crisis as the state-run NTPC Ltd, the country’s largest energy conglomerate, has threatened to snap power supply to Reliance Infrastructure-backed distribution companies — BSES Rajdhani Power Ltd (BRPL) and BSES Yamuna Power Ltd (BYPL) — if they fail to pay the pending dues by midnight on May 9. Tata Power Delhi is the third power distribution in the city. The NTPC, which issued two notices to the discoms, said that BRPL and BYPL had yet to clear dues of around Rs 1,300 crore for electricity supplied to the two entities since December.

“A notice for regulation has been served on the BRPL & BYPL for regulation of power supply with effect from 00:00 hours of May 10, 2016 for a total quantum of 2027 MW,” the energy giant said.

The two city power discoms, BRPL and BYPL, are yet to clear the dues of Rs 892.30 crore and Rs 402.93 crore respectively since December. The NTPC said that it has to pay in advance to its fuel suppliers which constitute about 75-80 per cent of its monthly energy bills. “If the above situation continues, NTPC stations may be facing outages on account of shortage of fuel. Under the circumstances, the NTPC has no other option but to serve the notice for regulation of power on the BSES discoms,” it said.

The company added that the payments by the BSES discoms had become irregular for quite sometime. “The matter was brought before the Supreme Court, that in its judgment on March 26, 2014, directed the BSES discoms to ensure payments of all current energy bills with effect from January 1, 2014. However, despite clear directions of the Supreme Court, the dues continued to pile up,” it said.

The NTPC has been supplying power to BSES discoms in Delhi since privatisation of the Delhi Vidyut Board. The power allocated to the discoms, BRPL and BYPL, from various NTPC power stations is 2,027 MW collectively since December (1,349 MW and 678 MW respectively). The outstanding dues for the two discoms are Rs 892.3 crore and Rs 402.93 crore respectively and average monthly energy bill is presently of the order of Rs 390 crore (Rs 260 crore and Rs 130 crore respectively), the statement said. The total amount outstanding is Rs 1,295.23 crore.

Commenting on the matter, a BSES spokesperson said, “BSES is under huge financial stress due to non-liquidation of regulatory assets estimated to be over Rs 16,000 crore as on March 31, 2016. As compared to this, dues payable by BSES to NTPC are around Rs 1,300 crore. We are awaiting the Supreme Court judgment, which will clear the path for recovery / liquidation of regulatory assets. The BSES discoms are also making concerted efforts to address the situation and clear pending dues in a just and equitable manner,” the spokesperson added. In March, the Delhi government had warned the two Reliance power distribution companies to immediately clear dues of Rs 1,958 crore to Delhi Transco Ltd (DTL) and had said it would take punitive action if the payment was not made. Earlier this week, city power minister Satyendar Jain had likened the power discoms with the British colonisers and questioned the purchase agreements with the power discoms in which there can be “no negotiations.”