Making an attempt to douse the smouldering issue of stubble burning in Punjab, at least to some extent, the state power utility — Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) or Powercom — is all set to make operational its over two-decade-old biomass fuel based power plant at Jalkheri in Fatehgarh Sahib district.
Once operational, the Jalkheri Power Plant would not only consume about 80,000 MT per annum of rice straw for producing electricity, but would also save environment from getting polluted due to burning of rice straw by the farmers, said the PSPCL chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) Bladev Singh Sran on Friday.
Sran said that the project will also help in meeting with PSPCL’s renewable purchase obligations (RPO) requirements. “This plant will generate 56.94 million units per annum considering a plant load factor of 65 percent,” he added.
To revive its inoperative Jalkheri Power Plant comprising one unit of 10 megawatt (MW), the PSPCL had decided to it lease out on renovate, operate and transfer (ROT) basis for a period of 20 years.
The plant was constructed by the erstwhile PSEB at Jalkheri village in Fatehgarh Sahib district and was commissioned in June 1992. The plant remained operational till July 1995, and then, it was given on lease to Jalkheri Power Plant Limited (JPPL) in July 2001, which commissioned the plant in July 2002, and kept it operational till September 2007.
