Cuts in coal inventory cost Punjab power utility ₹250 crore in just 10 days

PSPCL on Monday buys power from grid at whopping ₹14.46 per unit against an average ₹4.14 per unit

In a bid to save money by cutting down its coal inventory, the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has burnt a big hole in its own pocket as it ended up spending a whopping ₹250 crore in the first 10 days of October to buy electricity from the national grid to meet rising power demand.

In October so far, Punjab purchased nearly 25 crore units of power due to the PSPCL management’s failure to ensure sufficient coal stocks.

The average per unit rate of power purchased is ₹9.5 per, which is almost double the annual purchase cost. The average cost of power purchase per unit is ₹4.14 for the present fiscal.

With the state going to the polls early next year, the Punjab government has asked the corporation to ensure maximum supplies of electricity and bring down power cuts.

On Monday, the PSPCL procured 1,500 megawatt (MW) power at ₹14.46 per unit to cater to demand of the agriculture sector as farmer unions have started protests against the corporation for its failure to supply electricity for irrigating late-sown paddy verities like basmati.

In October so far, the state purchased nearly 25 crore units with the purchase bill already touching ₹250 crore due to the PSPCL management’s failure to ensure coal stocks as per the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) guidelines.

In May this year, the management had decided not to maintain coal stocks as per the previous years’ trends and brought down reserves to 23 days against the usual 35 days or more. This was done to save ₹40-50 crore. The private plants maintain minimum stock so as to save money on coal inventory.

PSPCL chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) A Venu Prasad said the coal stocks are still critical as only 12 rakes of fuel were received on Sunday against daily requirement of 22 rakes.

“Presently, all private coal-based plants in the state have less than 2 days of stock while the state-owned plants have below 4 days of reserves. The plants are still operating at 50% capacity. We hope that power availability will improve in the next couple of days as an additional 400 MW power is likely to be received. One more unit of the Ropar plant will start generating power from Tuesday,” he said.

Moreover, 50MW generation also started Monday at the Anandpur Sahib hydel project and it will be increased to 100 MW shortly, the CMD said.