Punjab Power Minister Harbhajan Singh ETO on Wednesday said that adequate power arrangements have been made to ensure 24x7 power supply to the people of the state during summers and uninterrupted 8 hours of daily supply to the farmers during this paddy season. He said that the PSPCL is in a position to meet 14150 MW of demand and it shall be able to meet 15350 MW demand by utilizing the remaining 1200 MW transmission capacity.
In a statement, the Power Minister said that the import capacity (ATC limit) of Punjab from outside Punjab has been enhanced to 8800 MW which is likely to be enhanced in a day or two to 9000 MW. “With around 6400 MW generation within state and 4800 MW share of the state in centre sector and BBMB plants and 2950 MW of short term arrangements i.e 7750 MW of arrangements from outside state on short term basis PSPCL is in position to meet 14150 MW of demand”, he said, adding that utilizing the remaining 1200 MW transmission capacity PSPCL shall be able to meet 15350 MW demand. The minister said that the remaining transmission capacity will be booked by procuring power from open market through exchanges on a real-time demand availability gap basis if required.
The Power Minister listed the addition of 11 new 66 kV Grid Substations, augmentation/Addition of new 52 Power Transformers at existing 66 kV Grid Substations, the erection of 378 km 66 kV transmission line, the addition of 352 new 11 kV feeders, addition of 27,047 Distribution Transformers, deloading of 1367 feeders of 11 kV, and augmentation of 43,628 Agricultural Distribution Transformers under VDS Scheme as part of preparedness for the paddy season.
The minister said recently a series of heavy storms hit various areas of Punjab causing severe damage to the power transmission & distribution infrastructure. “Storms resulted in damage of around 8150 Poles, 1839 Transformers and around 73 Km of conductor, with total financial loss assessed at around 16.5 Crores”, he said, adding that the PSPCL was able to restore power supply affected due to storm within minimum possible time with the continuous monitoring, systematic patrolling of feeders and clearing of lines.