Punjab imposes 12 hour power cut on small, medium industry
After imposing power regulatory measures on large scale industry, Punjab power utility PSPCL on Wednesday resorted to impose load shedding of 12 hours from today on small and medium scale industry. In a new notification, Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd (PSPCL) said power regulatory measures are imposed on Small Power (SP) and Medium Supply (MS)
After imposing power regulatory measures on large scale industry, Punjab power utility PSPCL on Wednesday resorted to impose load shedding of 12 hours from today on small and medium scale industry.
In a new notification, Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd (PSPCL) said power regulatory measures are imposed on Small Power (SP) and Medium Supply (MS) customers and no power will used by these customers daily from 8 pm till 8 am in the morning from July 15.
Earlier, PSPCL had imposed peak load hours restrictions for 12 hours on all large scale industry across Punjab, citing weak monsoon and high demand for power.
Punjab industry had opposed the move of PSPCL, saying it would hit the industry hard.
With paddy sowing season going on, Punjab has been facing heavy load shedding across all categories of customers ranging between 5 hours and 8 hours per day.
Power utility PSPCL has blamed inadequate coal supplies to private thermal power plants as reason for lesser power generation to meet increasing power requirements in the wake of "poor" monsoon.
On Monday, Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal said the power situation would improve in the state in the next two days after the steps taken by the government to step up coal supply to thermal plants in conjunction with the Union Coal ministry "bearing fruit".
Interestingly, PSPCL had earlier projected surplus availability of 12,807 (million units) of power throughout 2014-15 in its schedule of anticipated demand and energy availability.
PSPCL has even estimated surplus availability of energy during crucial months of May (1405 MUs), June (305 MUs), July (94 MUs) and August (600 MUs) when summers are at peak and paddy sowing season is on.
Punjab has total thermal capacity generation of 2,620 MW. Besides, it has hydel projects of 1,000 MW, share from BBMB at 1,110 MW, share from central projects 2,507 MW, co-generation 469 MW, taking state's total power capacity at 7,706 MW.