Scary State of Affairs in Punjab; Power demand surges after weekend holidays in Punjab; demand touches new height
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in News/ June 18,2024
Today, the power demand in Punjab crosses all time high figure when it touches 15,963 MW at around 1:00 pm . This is all time highest power demand in the history of PSPCL. The last highest demand was noted on June 14,2024 when it touched 15775 MW figure. After weekend, Eid holidays, today once again the power demand surges, after opening of offices.
“This is an alarming situation as the paddy transplantation in maximum parts of Punjab is yet to begin. After the beginning of paddy transplantation the power demand will drastically increases by another 2500-3000 MW” said a senior engineer on the condition of anonymity. He further added that “as six districts of Punjab namely Muktsar, Faridkot, Bathinda, Mansa, Fazilka and Ferozepur have already started transplanting paddy in the fields from June 11, are largely dependent on canal water for irrigation and the rest of the 17 districts namely Moga, Sangrur Malerkotla, Barnala, Patiala, Fatehgarh Sahib, Mohali, Ropar, Ludhiana, Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, Nawanshahr, Tarn Taran, Amritsar, Pathankot and Gurdaspur get water for irrigation from the tubewells and will start transplantation from June 20. ”
Another senior PSPCL engineer on the condition of anonymity said “the powercom has managed the situation after it touches 15912 MW figure. The powercom might have imposed unscheduled power cuts in certain areas to save the situation from becoming it worse and to save the grid.”
V K Gupta Spokesperson AIPEF had said that AIPEF has earlier written to Prime Minister and all state chief ministers demanding that the heat wave be declared a national calamity in view of rapidly increasing demand for electricity in the current conditions of extreme heat. While the situation of power availability and supply is becoming serious day by day, neither the central government nor any state government initiated steps to control the power demand. If the situation continues alike, there are fair chances of grid disturbance.
“Punjab is enduring an extended period of extreme heat, with the region experiencing relentless high temperatures. Excessive heat wave conditions have worsened the power demand situation in Punjab. It’s an alarming bell for the state government and powercom to take effective measures to save the situation” said another officer on the condition of anonymity.
“Punjab is enduring an extended period of extreme heat, with the region experiencing relentless high temperatures. Excessive heat wave conditions have worsened the power demand situation in Punjab. It’s an alarming bell for the state government and powercom to take effective measures to save the situation” said another officer on the condition of anonymity.
On June 17, Shailendra Dubey, Chairman All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) had also written a letter to the chief minister of Punjab, Bhagwant Mann to take immediate measures to avoid power crisis situation in Punjab.
Chairman AIPEF suggests CM Mann to impose restrictions, review free power policy in Punjab to avoid unmanageable power situation. Dubey said in our opinion, the situation is going to be serious if these steps reiterated below are noimplemented immediately:
- The office timings should be changed to 7am to 2pm .
2. All the commercial establishments, Malls, shops should be closed at 7pm.
3. Peak load restrictions should be imposed on Industry.
4. Paddy sowing in the remaining areas of Punjab state should be shifted to June 25, and no one should be allowed to violate the date. The water guzzling varieties like PUSA 44 should be banned and encourage varieties like PR126, Basmati, etc. which mature in 90 days.
5. Power theft should be covered as an offence under NSA.
6. Free power as a state policy should be reviewed forthwith.
7. The Minister of Power, Govt of India, may be approached to allocate at least 1000MW additional power extra from central pool on TOP PRIORITY.
On the other hand, the chief minister on June 17 2024 said that “the state government has no dearth of power for any sector in the state. He said that Punjabis a power surplus state and no power cut is being imposed in any sector despite of the ongoing peak season. Bhagwant Singh Mann said that this is due to the strenuous efforts, being made by the state government to ensure power supply to the every sector by introducing several reforms.”