Punjab facing power cuts in lean March due to coal shortage
Bahadurjeet Singh,Rupnagar
The consumers in the rural and kandi areas of Punjab are facing about two hours scheduled power cuts and in urban areas unscheduled power cuts are being imposed in this lean period.
Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd.(PSPCL) has face short supply of power availability from independent thermal power generators of Punjab as they are not maintaining sufficient coal stock at their thermal plants .
The coal stocks at the thermal plants of the private generators in Punjab is not building up as they continue to live on hand to mouth. This is despite the fact that the Ministry of Power has advised all the coal-based
thermal generating stations to maintain adequate coal stock as per their obligations and to ensure the generation as per requirements.
As on today ,the coal stock at Talwandi Sabo and GVK is for just o.7 day and 1.5 days respectively, while at Rajpura Thermal is sufficient for 7.2 days. The coal stock at state run Lehra Mohabatt and Ropar thermal plants
is for 16.9 days and 15.5 days respectively.
As on Saturday, Due to coal shortage Talwandi Sabo units are running at half load. One unit of GVK is under shut down due to coal shortage.One unit of Rajpura thermal is also under shut down due to technical fault.
At Lehra Mohabatt all the four units and three units at Ropar thermal are operating in this season also.
This year power demand in the month of March has increased by more than 1000 MW due to early arrival of summer.
The power supply in the state is 1580 lakh units and restricted supply demand is 1604 lakh units .Thus there is a shortage of 24 lakh units.
Punjab facing power cuts in lean March due to coal shortage. The coal supply from Pachhwara coal mine is likely to be started in june before the start of paddy season and this will help sufficient coal stocks at Ropar and Lehra Mohabatt thermal plants.
PSPCL may have to bear the brunt of inadequate coal inventory during the paddy season and will have to go for costly power purchase through power exchange to meet its requirements.
March 26,2022
