A ‘power’ful folly

In their Independence Day speeches leaders of the ruling coalition in Punjab, including Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal, highlighted one particular achievement they claim to have made since coming to power almost a decade back — they have made Punjab power surplus. In fact, recently when power rates had to be lowered for industry to incentivise demand as PSPCL was profusely bleeding due to overcapacity, the Deputy CM went to town boasting about his achievement. It is another matter that farmers were quick to complain that if there was such excess of power generation within the state why they were not getting uninterrupted supply and individual consumers wondered why the rates were not coming down. 

While the ruling Akali Dal and BJP leaders made it known all over that the days of power cuts were over and abundant power would make private investments flood Punjab and usher in the much-awaited industrial revolution, the State Power Secretary was desperately trying to sell the excess power produced by the private thermal plants. While a top bureaucrat acting as a salesman for private firms is in itself amusing, it is not a laughing matter that none of the power boards and corporations he approached across the country is willing to enter into a long-term contract for buying power. An equally worried PSPCL also tried to dispose of excess power, but even at Rs 3.90 per unit it found no buyers. 

This is because with one grid, one price countrywide and power supply improving, it was rank bad judgement to enter into any long-term deal. Only an overenthusiastic Sukhbir Badal, driven by his dream of making the state “power surplus”, has made the blunder of committing his government to an ill-designed agreement that ensures a regular loss to the state government and PSPCL and a guaranteed profit to private companies. And the absurdity is that the state’s own low-cost power generating units are regularly shut in order to keep private units in operation. While power rates countrywide are declining with an improved sale-purchase mechanism and less theft-prone transmission, the Badal government’s power subsidy keeps rising as do PSPCL’s losses.