Scrap faulty purchase pacts, engineers tell powercom

Aman Sood
Tribune News Service
Patiala, May 7

The PSEB Engineers’ Association has written to the top brass of the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) suggesting improving the working of the PSPCL and taking remedies to “save consumers” from increasing power bills.

For the review of power purchase agreements (PPAs) with independent power producers (IPPs) up to 2020, the PSPCL has surrendered unutilised power worth more than Rs 4,000 crore. “The per-unit cost from these IPPs has been increasing almost on yearly basis. Moreover, these IPPs are finding loopholes in the PPAs and have been indulging in litigation resulting in higher power cost to the consumers of the state. The overall impact of all such litigations will be around Rs 20,000 crore over the next remaining 20 years of the agreements,” states the letter.

“Long-term exclusive PPAs with the IIPs should be cancelled and like other projects power should be procured only as per actual requirement of the corporation at market competitive rates from these IPPs,” said general secretary of the association

Ajay Pal Singh Atwal.

“Further, to bring down fuel cost, Pachwara Coal mine needs to be made fully operational. If the captive coal mine allotted to the PSPCL in 2015 is made operational, the PSPCL will save Rs 600 to 700 per tonne of coal on account of cost difference only. Actual savings will be more than this,” reads the letter, a copy of which is with The Tribune.

The load curve of Punjab has a huge variation within day time as well as during the year. In summer months, the energy consumed goes up by 120 per cent in comparison to winter consumption. “Even during the day, there is a lot of difference in demand at peak and off peak. To flatten this curve, lowering night tariff in industrial, domestic and commercial in winter months, extending the concept of incentive-based tariff on higher consumption beyond threshold limit in off-peak periods to all categories, can help,” states the letter.

The PSEB engineers’ association further says that in line with ‘Pani Bachao Paise Kamao’, incentives can be offered to those AP feeders opting for night supply. Industrialisation will also help in a big way to flatten the curve. “This benefit may specifically be provided to the steel and furnace industry at Mandi Gobindgarh and bicycle industry at Ludhiana,” states president of the association Jasvir Singh Dhiman.

“The corporatisation of the erstwhile board into corporation was to enhance its working and to keep it free from bureaucratic processes. Whereas there seems to be a move by management to refer almost everything to Punjab Government rules and regulations, this is a step backwards. It is suggested that the management should consider simplifying rules and regulations and enhancing the efficiency of the corporation instead of referring to Punjab Government regulations at every instance,” claims the association.