The PSEB Engineers Association has expressed serious concerns over the under -utilization of State-owned thermal plants and demanded that the lopsided Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs), which were signed by PSPCl at the developer's terms & conditions with “deemed generation clause”, should be reviewed.
This will help the PSPCl in getting rid of unnecessary burden of Rs 2700 crore which is being paid to private generators as capacity charges whether they supply power or not, said Ajay Pal Singh, general secretary of the association.
He said that in order to compete with the private generators and to meet the next decade requirements, the viability of building three to four units of 800 to 1000 MW supercritical units at Ropar by phasing out the existing units is must. Ropar is at ideal location for a super critical plant which has adequate land and water supply, he added.
The association said that the Pachwara mine of PSPCl should be made operational without any delay which will lower the per unit cost of public sector plants and reduced the wear and tear plant machineries.
It further demanded that the issue of initial start of AEs scale should be resolved immediately. The newly recruited engineers should be paid on the principle equal work and equal pay to stop the brain drain from corporations.
Engineers also demanded that the old pension scheme should be implemented in Power Corporations as adopted by some Punjab Govt. departments recently. The issue of excessive charge sheets should be resolved immediately.
The Association also suggested that the core activities should be carry out departmentally instead of out-sourcing which will improve quality of work and revenue of the corporations.
Engineers are of the view that after taking above measures, PSPCl will be able to provide electricity supply the consumers at competitive and cheaper rates as envisaged in the Electricity Act 2003.