Major power shutdown in Punjab today as Lehra Mohabbat plant develops technical snag

Ruchika M Khanna

Chandigarh, May 14

Even as power demand continued to zoom, one unit of state-owned Lehra Mohabbat thermal plant developed a technical snag, hitting the power supply by 210 MW.

Another unit of the plant was forced shut to avoid any damage to it because of the snag.

Senior officers of PSPCL have rushed to assess the damage to the unit, whose electrostatic precipitators have developed a snag. Sources say it could take days before the fault could be repaired.

PSPCL has sought the help of Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited requesting them to immediately send their technical staff to repair the unit.

As a result of the breakdown, the state on Saturday fell short of 420 MW of power, forcing outages across the state.

The power demand has shot up like never before, with the demand reaching 10,900 MW on Friday.

Last year, the power demand in Punjab in the corresponding period was 5,727 MW.

Information available with The Tribune shows that other than the units at Lehra Mohabbat, one unit each at Ropar, Talwandi Sabo and Goindwal Sahib plants are also not generating power, either because they have shut down for annual maintenance or for other minor repairs. The state’s own power generation capacity is down by 1,810 MW.

Official sources in PSPCL told The Tribune that one unit of Talwandi Sabo would go back into generation by Saturday evening, and the unit at Lehra which has been forced shut to insulate it from the damage in the other unit, too, would soon restart.

“We are committed to ensuring supply to consumers. As the rates of the power on the exchange vary from Rs 8- Rs 4.36 per unit, we are buying power at the exchange to meet the demand. We are buying an average of 1,500-2,000 MW on the exchange daily, to ensure regular supply,” said a senior officer.