TSPL penalized on account of hardship faced by the people of Punjab: A.Venu Prasad
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in
There was a sudden disruption in power supply on 30th June and 1st July in the state due to sudden failure of second unit of Talwandi Sabo Power plant, Ropar thermal plant and low level of power generation from Bhakra Hydro project.
PSPCL CMD A.Venu Prasad disclosed that PSPCL has now issued a penalty notice to Talwandi Sabo Thermal Power Plant for not ensuring timely availability of its unit no 3. He said that PSPCL has been repeatedly directing TSPL to ensure full availability of its 3 units in the paddy season including unit no. 3 under forced outage which the TSPL has failed to do so till date whereas paddy season is in full swing.
He also said that due to failure of unit no. 3, PSPCL faced tremendous difficulty in providing 8 hours of uninterrupted power supply to its agriculture and domestic consumers of the state. He said that PSPCL has directed TSPL to make all out efforts to make unit no. 3 available at the earliest, PSPCL has issued the notice to TSPL asking them to explain as to why the capacity charges should not be deducted for the entire contract year 2021-22 considering non-availability of its unit under breakdown and be penalized on account of hardship faced by the people of Punjab.
He further added that PSPCL in spite of this mechanical fault has managed to supply full 8 hours of power to agriculture sector for the last 3 days. No power cut has been imposed on domestic sector. This was made possible by getting the limit of transmission corridor increased from Northern Regional Load Despatch Centre (NRLDC) due to failure of one unit of TSPL and getting increased power purchase ( to the extent allowed-7400MW) from power exchange to the maximum limit and several administrative measures.
July 4,2021
