Alarm bell for PSPCL; Punjab power demand crosses 14000 MW mark today
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in News/ June 19,2023
With the start of the third phase of 8 hour power supply today, Punjab’s power demand crossed the 14000 MW mark on Monday. The power demand in the afternoon touched 14182 MW at 3 PM . PSPCL was drawing more than 8500 MW from the northern grid while its own gross generation was around 5600 MW. This consisted of state sector own thermal generation of 1150 MW, Hydro generation 800 MW , private generators 3200 MW.
All the seven available thermal units in the state sector are running at slightly reduced load. One GVK unit is under breakdown due to technical fault.
Last year the power demand on these days was between 11025 to 11347 MW. The maximum power demand in the state has increased by about 3000 MW over last year’s demand.
The last phase of paddy power supply will begin on June 21 and after that the maximum power demand will then cross 15500 MW by June end.
On Sunday the maximum power demand was 11997 MW and PSPCL supplied 2446 lakh units. Even PSPCL sold 16.8 lakh units through exchange.
The coal stock at Lehra Mohabbat and Ropar thermal plants are for 44 and 27 days respectively. The coal stock in private sector thermal plants Rajpura has 34 days, Talwandi Sabo 6.5 days and GVK only 2.6 days.
The water level in the hydro plants reservoir is in better position than last year’s level on the same day. The water level in Bhakra reservoir is 1577 feet which is 19.5 feet more than last year’s level of 1567.5 feet on the corresponding day. At Ranjit Sagar water level is 511.97 which is more than 6.7 meters higher from last year’s level of 505.2 meters.
Alarm bell for PSPCL; Punjab power demand crosses 14000 MW mark today. Last year on June 29 the maximum power demand of 14207 MW in Punjab surpassed its earlier record of 14056 MW.
The third and fourth phase of agriculture supply will start from June 19 and 21 respectively. Normally the maximum demand and supply comes in the last days of June , when it is expected to cross 15000 MW.