The State power utility, Punjab State Power Corporation limited (PSPCl) on Monday claimed that it has been successful in meeting paddy power demand without imposing any power cut on any category of consumers.
Expressing satisfaction at the arrangements, PSPCl chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) KD Chaudhri said that we are committed to eight-hour power supply to farmers during paddy and 24-hour power supply to rest of consumers in Punjab.
“However, in case of complete failure of monsoon, some regulatory measures cannot be ruled out because in such situations restrictions are imposed by Northern Region load Despatch Centre (NRlDC) or State load Despatch Centre (SlDC),” he said while addressing a press conference.
“The load pattern of Punjab is such that the power demand crosses 12,000 mega watt (MW) during paddy, whereas it remains in the range of 3,000 MW to 6,000 MW during rest of eight months…The present availability of power is sufficient to meet with the paddy demand,” he said.
Chaudhri said, “To meet with any exigency, short term power purchase agreements have been made with 1,150 MW of power tied up for June, 1,376 MW for July and 736 MW for August at total cost of Rs740 crores.”
CMD, speaking on coal front, said that there is good amount of stock available at each of the plant.
“PSPCl has also made arrangement to extract coal from its own mine at Pachwara in Jharkhand, and soon this coal will also be available. PSPCl has also placed order of 600 lakh tonne of coal from South Africa which has better heat capacity. This coal will start reaching plants from July 1 onwards,” he said.