Power mess in Punjab- ill-preparedness of PSPCL management for paddy season exposed-PSEBEA
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in
PSEB Engineers’ Association (PSEBEA) has criticised the PSPCL management and Punjab Government for going against the interest of the common people of Punjab and not being able to safeguard the interest of the power sector. Engineers have been informing the management and Punjab Government regarding the looming power crisis, that the wrong decisions being taken by the management will dearly cost the consumers of Punjab in the form of unreliable power supply and higher electricity tariffs. The fears of engineers have now, unfortunately, come true and Punjab is now facing a severe power crisis during the peak summer season. Due to improper planning, neither sufficient manpower was arranged, nor sufficient material has been procured and now the claims of management regarding adequate power availability stand exposed by the recurring power cuts being imposed and insufficient power supply to agriculture consumers. This is an irony that the State is facing an acute power shortage and as per wrong management decisions the two healthy units at Ropar Thermal have been kept closed. There is an urgent need to revive these two units immediately.
Er. Jasvir Singh Dhiman, President of the association informed that the Punjab Government, going against CEA guidelines and ignoring the warnings of power engineers of the looming power shortage. The govt has closed its own Thermal Plant at Bathinda and two units at Ropar thermal, without any alternate arrangements.
Association in the past has been continuously forewarning the consequences of lopsided generation policies and total reliance on the private sector but unfortunately, policymakers in the past did not pay any heed and as a result, Punjab is now facing a power crisis. Association stated that despite acute manpower shortage at both thermals, all PSPCL thermal plants are providing power at full capacity to the State at this crucial juncture. But the private sector Talwandi Sabo Private Thermal plant, despite knowing well in advance about the power demand during the paddy season, failed miserably to ensure timely repairs, further pushing the State into a power crisis during the peak demand. One no 660 MW unit of Talwandi sabo Thermal has been under outage for the last 4 months.
Association had earlier warned that closing its own running Plants would be a technical blunder and Punjab will not be able to meet its power demand during the summer season. Moreover, the proposals of the power sector experts to establish additional Solar Plants and Biomass Plants at Bathinda and Ropar were ignored by the Government. These proposals would have helped provide cheaper renewable electricity to the consumers of the State during the paddy season.
Er. Dhiman further informed that there is an acute shortage of staff in PSPCL, more than 50% of posts are vacant, which in turn is not only denying employment opportunities to the youth of the State but has affected the services of PSPCL. Further, the management in the name of restructuring is eliminating essential posts. Substations and distribution subdivisions are without manpower. Due to the inaction of PSPCL management, 1227 posts from the Punjab cadre are lying vacant in BBMB. With the limited manpower available, engineers are finding it difficult to provide quality service to the public.
Now engineers are being manhandled and targeted by the common public and farmer unions for the failures of PSPCL management. Today SE Barnala and other engineers have been gheraoed by protesting farmer unions. Under such conditions, it has become impossible to ensure quality power supply to the consumers of the State.
It was further informed that Power Engineers have been on protest for the last many months against the Management due to shortage of material, staff and the non-resolution of their long pending genuine demands but management failed to resolve the issues. Engineers had also warned the management multiple times of the looming power crisis and closure of state thermals but their suggestions were ignored. PSEB Engineers’ Association requested CM Punjab to grant a meeting to the association for resolution of the issues being faced by the State power sector.
June 25,2021
