Water level in Bhakra reservoir increased by 13 feet in eight days
Bahadurjeet Singh/Rupnagar,July 1,2023
Improvement in water storage capacity in major reservoirs of Himachal and Punjab following heavy rains in Himachal Pradesh in the last eight days of June will allow BBMB and PSPCL to step up power generation to meet the peak demands during the paddy season, said V K Gupta Spokesperson All India power Engineers Federation (AIPEF)
The water level in Bhakra reservoir has increased by thirteen feet in the last eight days of June after the heavy rains in the catchment areas in Himachal Pradesh. The Bhakra reservoir level was 1582 feet on June 23 and today it is 1595 feet , an increase of 13 feet. Last year during the corresponding period water level decreased by 4.4 feet from 1558.3 feet to 1554.7 feet.
At Pong Dam the water level increased by six feet from 1330.4 feet to 1336.8 feet while last year it decreased by 2 feet from 1298 feet to 1296 feet. Ranjit Sagar Dam reservoir level also showed an increase of 2.5 feet from 1678.8 feet to 1681.3 feet against a decrease of 6 feet last year during corresponding period.
Improvement in water level position in major reservoirs of Himachal and Punjab following heavy rains in Himachal Pradesh in the last eight days of June will allow BBMB and PSPCL to step up power generation to meet the peak demands during the paddy season, said V K Gupta Spokesperson All India power Engineers Federation (AIPEF)
As per latest weekly reservoir level and storage bulletin of central water commission (CWC) of June 30 this year , reservoir live storage capacity in the northern region increased to 8.473 billion cubic meters) (BCM) from last week’s storage capacity of 7,709 BCM.. This is an increase of 4% which is 43% of total live storage. Last year it was 23%and the average storage of the last 10 years is 30%.
The water storage in 3 reservoirs in Himachal comprising Bhakra, Pong and Kol Dam is 32 % of total live storage. In the case of Punjab, storage capacity of Ranjit Sagar Dam(RSD) reservoir is 51%.
The live storage during the current year is better than the corresponding period of last year and is also better than the average storage of the last ten years during the corresponding period.
BBMB power houses at Bhakra, Dehar and Pong are generating power 150 lakh units daily while RSD is generating power around 75 lakhs daily. The power demand in Punjab these days is around 14000 MW .All the seven available units are running in the state thermal plants.Two units of Talwandi Sabo are out due to boiler related problems and may be available in next three to four days.
