Amid Punjab’s power crisis, PSPCL purchases 400 MW power at Rs 12.40 per unit from open market

Aman Sood
Tribune News Service
Patiala July 8 

Punjab is witnessing an all-time high power demand due to the ongoing paddy season amid a  delayed monsoon, said Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) A.Venu Prasad on Thursday. 

Prasad said that power availability was low this season due to reduced water levels in dams resulting in a hydropower deficit of about 600 MW.

Also read: Punjab’s power crisis worsens as two units at power plants develop snags

“One unit of Talwandi Sabo Power Ltd. (TSPL) has been on forced outage due to a turbine breakdown, while another unit has developed a technical snag and the third one was operating at half capacity due to some technical issue. This has resulted in a shortage of nearly 2,200 MW,”  he said.

Prasad said PSPCL purchased extra power of 400 MW from the open market at Rs 12.40 per unit on Thursday. A total of 1,400 MW power was purchased at an exchange rate of Rs 5.46 per unit.

He said that at the request of the Punjab Government, National Load Despatch Centre (NLDC) has agreed to enhance the Available Transfer Capability/Total transfer capability (ATC/TTC) limit to 8,000/8,600 MW from 6 pm to 9 am due to the outage at the TSPL unit.

PSPCL was utilizing this limit by importing power to improve the supply position. Last year, the same import limit was only 6,500 MW.

Prasad said that the installed capacity of PSPCL from all sources was 13,845 MW, out of which about 9,000 MW was being generated. The major reason was due to the failure of TSPL and reduced power generation by the BBMB (Bhakra Beas Management Board). 

“PSPCL had been forced to impose power regulatory measures on South and Border Zones to make up for the shortage. PSPCL was making efforts to continue supplying 8-hour uninterrupted power to the AP consumers,” he said. 

Industrialists have been up in arms against the government for forced weekly offs and restricted industry activities till July 11 due to the power shortage.