Jaipur: Urja Vikas Nigam and IT Services Ltd (RUVITL), the agency responsible for securing power supplies to the state discoms, has turned to Utpadan Nigam’s Dholpur gas power plant to meet surging electricity demand.For five consecutive nights since July 15, the plant has been supplying additional power despite the absence of a power purchase agreement with discoms.This has left Utpadan Nigam unable to claim payment for the electricity delivered. Officials estimate the company has incurred costs of nearly Rs 13 crore during this period, with generation expenses climbing to about Rs 30 per unit due to high natural gas prices.“We do not have any power purchase agreement with the state discoms but still we are being asked to meet demand during peak hours,” an official said, underscoring the financial strain of the emergency dispatch.In fact, the plant also does not have any long-term contract for sourcing gas since 2020 for running the plant.On Monday, the discoms chairman issued a directive to RUVITL, instructing that the Dholpur plant should not be used except in genuine emergencies. The order cited the plant’s high variable cost, which makes its electricity significantly more expensive than alternative sources.The directive clarified that the plant may only be operated during contingencies, outages of contracted capacity, or when required by the State Load Despatch Centre for grid security. It further stated that the gas-based unit should not be treated as a dependable source for long-term planning, given its prohibitive cost.