PSPCL sees 40% rise in power demand

Tribune News Service

Aman Sood
Patiala, April 10

Grappling with irregular supply leading to an acute shortage of coal at thermal plants, the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) is facing a 40 per cent rise in power demand as compared to the last year.

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 the reduced capacity, the thermal plants in Punjab are not even getting half of the daily coal requirement. Hence, all thermal plants are producing less power.

No outages

The power demand is much lower than the availability. Against the supply of 8,600 MW, the demand is 7,600 MW. Thus, there is no reason for the PSPCL to impose cuts. —PSPCL officials

Further, the PSPCL has got a nod from the power regulator to resort to cuts to manage the promised eight-hour supply to farms during the paddy sowing season, starting June.

Power Minister Harbhajan Singh said the power demand could exceed 15,000 MW in the paddy season. “Around 16,085 lakh units (LUs) were made available from April 1 to April 9. This was 43 per cent more in comparison to power made available during the corresponding period last year,” he said.

Due to a steep rise in temperature since March, there has been a surge in power demand. The PSPCL has purchased 655 LUs from the power exchange this year in comparison to 186 LUs purchased in 2021.

“The PSPCL is focusing on maximum exchange of power with other states. Since November 2021, electricity has been supplied for ‘banking’ so that 2,300-MW power can be received during the upcoming paddy season,” said the Power Minister.

Though the PSPCL’s Pachhwara coal mine at Jharkhand has not been operational since 2015, the corporation now wants to restart it at the earliest. “Dewatering of the mine is being done since the last week and mining will start by June-end. This will ensure sufficient coal supply for the paddy season,” said officials.

While farmers and villagers claim that they are facing outages ranging from 30 minutes to a couple for hours every day, the PSPCL denied imposing any cuts. It claimed that power cuts in rural areas are imposed only during the daytime to prevent the standing wheat crop from catching fire.

“The power demand is much lower than the availability. Against the supply of 8,600 MW, the demand is 7,600 MW. Thus, there is no reason for the PSPCL to resort to cuts,” it said.

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