As 2 power units trip, Punjab short of 200 lakh units of electricity

Aman Sood

Patiala, April 26

Already facing a tight demand and supply situation, the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) here on Tuesday faced another blow following boiler leakage at one unit each at Talwandi Sabo and Ropar thermal plants.

As per insiders, this would result in a shortage of around 200 lakh units per day for the next three days.

Punjab has already bought power worth over Rs 200 crore and with summer temperatures increasing, the shortage will lead to more power cuts.

“At present, the demand is somewhere around 7,500 MW and the supply is less than that, following which we resort to power cuts to manage the gap,” says a senior PSPCL official.

Meanwhile, the shortage of coal means the power generation at almost all thermal plants is less than their full capacity in order to stock on coal, 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 hours”, power experts warn of long power cuts in the coming four months.

Earlier this month, Power Minister Harbhajan Singh had said that the PSPCL had made additional arrangements to cater to the peak demand in the coming paddy season. However, a former PSPCL chief engineer said the industry was worried about the pre-paddy season too.

The daily coal requirement of all five thermal plants is around 75 metric tonnes while operating at the plant load factor of over 85 per cent. Despite running at a reduced capacity, the thermal plants in Punjab are not getting even half the daily coal requirement.

Despite the paddy season almost a month away, Patiala, Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Sangrur, Ferozepur and Amritsar cities have been facing frequent power cuts.

However, the PSPCL claims to have sufficient power to meet the power demand in the paddy season.