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Centre, state government responsible for power crisis in Punjab: PSEB engineers’ association
The PSEB association said that Punjab is currently facing about 2,000 MW shortage leading to power crisis in the state
: The PSEB engineers’ association (PSEBEA) has blamed the Centre and the Punjab government for the unprecedented power crisis in the state fuelled by insufficient coal supply and unwanted closure of thermal plants in Bathinda and Ropar among other reasons, warning that the situation is expected to worsen in the coming months.
The association said that as per available data, Punjab is currently facing about 2,000 MW shortage, resulting in long power cuts across the state and the situation is expected to aggravate during the months of June and July.
The grim power situation in Punjab is driven by insufficient coal supply, inadequate coal stocks in power plants, failure of IIPs at most crucial times, non-operationalisation of Pachwara coal mine, no addition in state sector generation, it said.
Unwanted closure of 880 MW state sector capacity thermal plants at Bathinda and Ropar and not adding enough state sector generation keeping in view the growth in power demand due to unprecedented heatwave conditions has also led to the power woes of the state, it said.
PSEBEA president Jasvir Singh Dhiman said that the lopsided decision of premature closure of thermal plants at Bathinda and two units at Ropar from January 1, 2018 have added to the power crisis.
These units were closed without carrying out any techno-commercial analysis. Had these units been available at the present then the power crisis would have been mitigated to some extent, he added.
The systematic failure of the decision-makers in ignoring ground realities, professional advice and a casual approach toward the power sector has brought the sector to the brink of this crisis, general secretary Ajayvir Singh Atwal.
PSEBEA said that non-payment of subsidy bills by the Punjab government has added to the distress of PSPCL to make timely payments for power and coal purchase. Subsidy bill to the tune of Rs. 9,020 Cr. is unpaid by the Punjab government for the year 2021-22. As of date, Rs. 2,679 Cr is pending against state government departments.
Till Thursday, two units at Talwandi Sabo were not operational and even during last summer season, this plant failed to ensure reliable operations. This plant is unable to maintain sufficient coal inventory, the association said, demanding that an immediate special performance audit of this plant be carried out to ensure energy security during the coming peak summer months.
It also demanded that supercritical thermal plants in place of Ropar thermal plant be executed to reduce the dependency on other state plants, keeping in view the power requirement of the future.
State-run solar power generation unit of 250 MW be installed and operated by PSPCL on the vacant land of thermal plant of Bathinda, it said.
PSEBEA said that PSPCL Management must ensure that the production from the Pachhwara coal mine is commenced at the earliest and the coal linkage to the IPPs is enhanced keeping in view the anticipated generation.
It appealed to the consumers and farmer organisations to cooperate with power engineers as the situation is beyond their control. It also requested the public not to enter grids keeping in view the safety concerns.
