Facing criticism for “wrong” claims of having surplus electricity, the State power utility - Punjab State Power Corporation limited (PSPCl) - on Friday claimed that power situation in the State was comfortable and no load shedding was taking place.
“With efforts of management, the power supply position in Punjab has been quite comfortable so far,” stated the PSPCl chairman-cum-managing director KD Chaudhri. He said that daily power demand, which has crossed 1,300 lakh units, was being met.
“On May 22, the demand of power was 1,337 lUs, which was met through own thermal generation of 476 lUs, own hydro generation 154 lUs, from BBMB 117 lUs, New and Renewable Sources of Energy (NRSE) 10 lUs, Central Sector allocations 525lUs, Banking 24 lUs and purchase of 31 lUs,” he said. Chaudhri claimed that presently, no power cuts are being imposed on any category of consumers and adequate power was being given to farmers.
On coal issue, Chaudhri claimed the position of coal supply at PSPCl plants was satisfactory. The reserve stock of 5.39 lakh metric tonne of coal is available at Ropar plant, 1.85 lakh MT at lehra Mohabbat and 0.85 lakh MT at Bathinda, he said.
“PSPCl has taken up the matter with Coal India to increase the supply of coal rakes. I hope that the issue of coal supply with Panem Coal Mines would be sorted out in coming days,” he added.
Interestingly, in its schedule of anticipated demand and energy availability for 2014-15, PSPCl had projected surplus availability of 12,807 (million units) of power throughout the year with estimating total power availability of 61,462 (MUs) against requirement of 48,655 (MUs). PSPCl has already sought power regulator approval for purchasing 5047 million units (MU) of short term power in order to bridge gap between demand and supply during May till September.
Meanwhile, around 2,000 power engineers under the banner of PSEB Engineers’ Association on Friday switched off their mobile phones from 9 am till 5 pm in protest against non-acceptance of their demands.
The Association claimed that the complaints of power consumers were not redressed at several places in Punjab because of engineers remaining incommunicado. Protesters are already holding ‘work-to-rule’ agitation whereby engineers do not work after working hours.