The Gujarat government sold 2,186.34 million units (MU) of surplus electricity to six states in the last two years, Gujarat Energy Minister told the Assembly today.

During Question Hour in the Assembly, Congress MLA from Bayad, Mahendrasinh Vaghela sought details from Gujarat Energy Minister Saurabh Patel about electricity sold to different states by Gujarat, as well as the rationale behind selling electricity to these states.

In his reply, Patel stated that the Gujarat government had sold a total of 2186.34 million units of electricity to six different states during 2013-14 (February to January) and 2014-15 (February to January).

Out of these, 2021.36 million units were sold during 2013-14 and 164.98 million units of electricity were sold during 2014-15, he said.

In 2013-14, Karnataka purchased 1810.53 million units of electricity at Rs 4.16 per unit, Uttar Pradesh purchased 190.82 million units at Rs 3.29 per unit and Delhi purchased 20.01 million units at Rs 4.25 per unit.

In 2014-15, Karnataka purchased 26.11 million units at Rs 4.50 per unit, Uttar Pradesh purchased 45.73 million units at Rs 3.03 per unit, Maharashtra purchased 11.03 million units at Rs 2.97 per unit, West Bengal purchased 50.84 million units at Rs 3.09 per unit and Assam purchased 3.04 million units at Rs 3.04 per unit.

Explaining the reasons behind selling electricity to other states, Patel stated that since surplus electricity cannot be stored, especially during the low-demand period, it has to be sold to other states to utilise optimum generating capacity of power plants.

He said that power generation in electricity plants can be brought down to a technical minimum level in case domestic demands falls.

However, beyond that minimum limit, the power plant cannot be slowed down and therefore the state has to sell additional electricity to other states.