Capt: No rethink on power plant closure

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 21

Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh has ruled out reversal of the government’s decision to close down the Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant (GNDTP), Bathinda, pointing to non-feasibility of its continued operations.

In a statement issued here today, the Chief Minister explained the circumstances that led to the closure of the Bathinda thermal plant and two units of the Ropar thermal plant, saying the decision had to be taken mainly due to lack of power demand in the state and availability of cheaper power from other alternative sources.

Reiterating that no employee would lose his job because of the closure and all workers would be accommodated within the region, the Chief Minister said after closing down the plant operations completely, the surplus manpower of the Bathinda plant shall be utilised on other works where there was staff shortage. This would increase productivity as it would stop increase of power generation cost over the year, besides resulting in savings to PSPCL, as power from Bathinda GNDTP was being generated at a very high cost as compared to the overall cost of electricity in PSPCL making generation from GNDTP units unviable.

The CM said power demand in Punjab varies very widely during paddy and non-paddy season. This year, the maximum demand had been recorded at 11,600 MW in summer months and 5,600 MW in winter months. Further, in winters, there is a lot of variation in day and night time demand, with the latter coming down to around 3,000 MW. Though the state has become power surplus, generation capacity is utilised fully only in paddy periods of four months and, for the remaining eight months, the same remains underutilised.

The CM added that the plant was of old design and required more manpower for operation as compared to new power plants, which were fully computerised.