White Paper power panel yet to meet

NEW DELHI, December 30: On December 22, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit announced that her government would come out with a White Paper on the Delhi Vidyut Board by January 15. But with barely a fortnight left, the five-member committee set up for the purpose is yet to meet. With power minister Dr Narendra Nath in the chair, the panel includes DVB chairman Virendra Singh and his top colleagues Y.P. Singh and S.P. Aggarwal.

The white paper is expected to blame the last BJP government for all that ails DVB. But the agenda before the committee includes restructuring of the Board, augmentation of the system and maintenance of the existing system to take a load of 2,600 mega watts or more in the coming summer. “We have to add capacity to our distribution system. System augmentation is very essential,” member technical Y.P. Singh said. “So far there is a public perception that there is no accountability in the DVB. The committee will also seek to find ways to change that public perception,” a senior Board official said.

Then the an important issue for discussion would be maintenance of grid parameters with the Northern Region Electricity Board (NREB) and other bodies. The committee will try to get across to the Delhi government that despite getting the required electricity on demand from the grid, the problem persists and the reason for that is not just poor performance of DVB system. “Frequency is the culprit. We have had to install 30 under frequency relays only to save our system. But NREB and the central government has to ensure similar response from other member states of the northern grid too,” he added.