After snag hits 2 thermal plants, Punjab short of 200L power units

Aman Sood

Patiala, April 27

Already reeling under power cuts, Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) on Tuesday faced another blow following boiler leakage at one unit each at Talwandi Sabo and Ropar thermal plants.

As per insiders, this has resulted in a shortage of around 200 lakh units per day for the next two days. Punjab has already bought power worth over Rs 200 crore to meet the rising demand, which is up by over 30 to 40% as compared to last year. Now with the increasing temperature, the shortage will lead to more power cuts.

“At present, the demand is somewhere around 8,150 MW and following a shortage of around 800 MW due to the two units facing technical issues, the supply is less,” says a senior PSPCL official.

A senior PSPCL official said on Monday, Punjab saw 1,740 lakh units of power consumption as compared to 1,106 lakh units during the last season. While the PSPCL managed the supply on Monday, it fell short due to the shutting down of two units on Tuesday.

“Due to the shortage, we have no other option but to levy cuts as agricultural fields and the industries need power due to their peak season. As a result, villages are facing cuts and if the situation doesn’t improve, we’ll have no option but to go for longer outages in the cities as well,” said the official, preferring anonymity.

Meanwhile, the shortage of coal means the power generation at almost all thermal plants is less than their full capacity, ahead of the paddy season starting June when Punjab’s power demand will reach 15,000 MW.

While the PSPCL claims that the “power interruptions are for a limited period” due to “high demand during night”, experts warn of longer cuts in coming four months.

“Due to limited coal stocks and long dry spells, the power demand is high. If rains elude Punjab in June, power cuts can haunt the state consumers for longer duration,” said VK Gupta, spokesperson, All India Power Engineers Federation, spokesperson.

Notably, the daily coal requirement of all five thermal plants is around 75 MT while operating at the plant load factor of more than 85%. Despite running at a reduced capacity, the thermal plants in Punjab are not getting even half the daily coal requirement.

Punjab’s transmission capacity increased

• The Centre has enhanced Punjab’s power transmission capacity from outside the state to a record 9,000 MW with a reliability margin of 500 MW
• Now, the state can meet the power demand of more than 15,000 MW during the paddy season, which starts June onwards