Lucknow Uttar Pradesh Power Corporation’s (UPPCL) chickens have come home to roost. With outstanding dues of R8,636 crore on July 5 — which the corporation says it has reduced to R4,500 crore now — the loss-making UPPCL finds it no longer has enough money to buy power from generating entities in the state.

Normally, these units should be able to sell this power outside the state, but with state-owned dispatch centres often not giving permission to do so, power capacity often gets wasted.