A day after facing an acute power shortage due to low coal stocks and technical snags in two of its thermal power plants, Punjab on Thursday trudged towards a “normal” power supply with Ropar thermal power plant starting power generation, and Talwandi Sabo expected to resume its operations by Friday morning.
The state Power Minister Harbhajan Singh claimed that due to the intense heatwave, the power demand this year is 40 percent more compared to the previous year. “The power crisis that Punjab is facing is not only in the State but across the country...On April 26, due to technical faults, 800 megawatt (MW) Talwandi Sabo power plant and Ropar power plants had to shut down which badly affected the power supply,” said the Minister, adding that the entire team of the power department is working day and night to resolve the crisis.
The Minister maintained that the Ropar thermal plant has resumed its operations on Thursday, while Talwandi Sabo will resume from Friday.
Meanwhile, the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) chairman-cum-managing director Baldev Singh Sran left for the national capital to seek uninterrupted coal supply for Punjab’s thermal plants. PSPCL CMD was scheduled to meet the officials of the Railways and Coal Ministries.
The one unit of 210 MW at Ropar thermal, that shut down due to boiler leakage, started generation; while the 660 MW unit of Talwandi Sabo is expected to resume on Friday. However, with increasing power demand, the State Government was not able to provide much respite to the consumers considering the high demand for power, coupled with low coal stock.
Punjab, along with a majority of the coal-based thermal plants in the country, is facing irregular coal supply and is unable to replenish its already low stock. Senior PSPCL officials confirmed that though coal was arriving, it was way less than what was required to keep the plants running at full capacity.
As per information available, Punjab is facing a power shortage of about 2050 MW, out of the total demand of around 9500 MW — resulting in the imposition of long, unscheduled power cuts ranging between six to eight hours in rural areas and for four to five hours in urban segments.
Guru Gobind Singh Super Thermal Power Plant at Ropar has a coal stock of 8.3 days, while state-run Guru Hargobind Thermal Plant at Lehra Mohabbat has four days’ coal stock. In the private sector, GVK Thermal Plant at Goindwal Sahib 2.4 days of stock, Rajpura Thermal Power Plant has 18 days of stock, and Talwandi Sabo Power Limited (Super Critical) plant has 6.5 days of coal stock left.
Punjab has total of five thermal plants — three are private and two are government-owned. There are a total of 15 thermal units that have an installed capacity of about 5880 MW. As four out of a total 15 thermal power units are down, only 3327 MW of power is being generated.
Punjab has nearly 7000 MW of in-house power generation capacity, including 5880 MW of thermal power generation. Presently, the in-house generation has come down to 3950 MW.
A power official, requesting anonymity, said that the main problem is that none of the state’s thermal power plants have been able to maintain its coal stocks for the past two years. The official maintained that though the state faced a similar situation of coal shortage in November last year, there was not adequate coal stock in all plants since 2020.
The official maintained that the situation will take some time to improve as power demand is increasing and we are short of 200 lakh units daily with demand increasing.
On April 10, Punjab Power Minister Harbhajan Singh had reiterated the Government’s commitment to providing eight hours of regular supply to agriculture pump sets, and uninterrupted and quality power supply to all categories of consumers including industry in the State in the upcoming paddy season. He had informed that peak demand in the coming paddy season is expected to be around 15,000 to 15,500 MW. “PSPCL is focusing on maximum banking with other states, starting from November 2021 power is being supplied for banking and is being continued right up to April so that the 2300 MW power can be received back during the upcoming paddy season”, he had said.
OPPOSITION LASHES AT AAP GOVT
With the common man feeling the pinch of power cuts, the ruling AAP and Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann have come under direct attack from the opposition parties in Punjab. Senior Congress leader and the Leader of Opposition in Vidhan Sabha Partap Singh Bajwa has appealed to the Union Government to bail out Punjab as the state nears a blackout.
Punjab Congress’ former president Navjot Singh Sidhu protested outside a Rajpura thermal power plant and a farmers’ union led by Joginder Singh Ugrahan protested in Mansa. “If the Government of India does not bail us out, there will be a complete blackout in Punjab in the coming days. It is a very serious situation. Bhagwant Mann is touring Delhi to see the swimming pools while his own state is sweating and is in the worst electricity crisis,” said Bajwa.
At the same time, Punjab Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring took a dig at the AAP government’s 300 free units promise by asking to at least provide electricity, and leave aside free power.
Meanwhile, senior SAD leader Balwinder Singh Bhundur said that the Delhi Model had electrocuted Punjab with Punjabis, who had been promised round-the-clock power supply, facing 18-hour power cuts at the onset of the summer season. “If this is the change AAP promised, then it will only lead to the destruction of the State’s agriculture and industrial economy and cause untold hardship to the common man...The breakdown also proved that the AAP government did not have any vision document to make PSPCL self-sufficient and had befooled Punjabis with the promise of round-the-clock assured power supply,” he said.
