The prevailing power crisis in Punjab is likely to deepen further after another unit of the Talwandi Sabo thermal plant stopped power generation after developing a snag due to a boiler problem. Already, one of the three units of the private-owned coal based plant is under shutdown since February 27.
Taking strong note, the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has issued a penalty notice to the Talwandi Sabo Power Limited (TSPL) “for not ensuring timely availability of its unit no 3”. PSPCL has issued the notice to TSPL asking them to “explain as to why the capacity charges should not be deducted for the entire contract year 2021-22 considering non-availability of its unit under breakdown and be penalized on account of hardship faced by the people of Punjab”.
“PSPCL has been repeatedly directing TSPL to ensure full availability of its three units in the paddy season, including unit no. 3 under forced outage, which the TSPL has failed to do till date whereas paddy season is in full swing,” said PSPCL chairman cum managing director A Venu Prasad.
Prasad said that due to failure of unit no. 3, PSPCL faced tremendous difficulty in providing eight hours of uninterrupted power supply to its agriculture and domestic consumers of the State.
“PSPCL has directed TSPL to make all out efforts to make unit no. 3 available at the earliest,” he added.
TSPL, at Banawali village in Mansa district, has three units of 660 MW each, with the capacity of producing total 1980 MW power.
The power plant, before the leakage reported in the plant’s unit number 1 on late Saturday night, was producing 1178 MW power — which is 142 MW less than the generation capacity of 1320 MW from the two units. As of now, the state’s power demand without restrictions and eight hours supply to the agriculture sector has already crossed 15000 MW. Under these circumstances, the Punjab Government may announce more curbs for the industrial sector for a few more days or till the arrival of monsoon expected around July 8.
Even as there was a little relief from the power situation to some extent in the past two days, the snag in another unit is expected to make the situation worse. A PSPCL official maintained that making the second unit operational may take some time after fixing the problem.
PSPCL chairman-cum-managing director on Sunday said that there was a sudden disruption in power supply on June 30, and July 1 in the State due to “sudden failure of second unit of Talwandi Sabo Power plant, Ropar thermal plant and low level of power generation from Bhakra Hydro project”.
“PSPCL, in spite of this mechanical fault, has managed to supply a full eight hours of power to the agriculture sector for the last three days. And no power cut has been imposed on domestic sector,” said Prasad, adding that this was made possible by getting the limit of transmission corridor increased from Northern Regional Load Despatch Centre (NRLDC) due to failure of one unit of TSPL and getting increased power purchase (to the extent allowed-7400 MW) from power exchange to the maximum limit and several administrative measures.
REGULAR MINIMUM 8-HR POWER SUPPLY BEING ENSURED TO FARMERS: PSPCL
PSPCL is ensuring uninterrupted eight-hour electricity supply to the farmers daily for paddy sowing even amidst unprecedented demand hike across the domestic sector, said PSPCL CMD A Venu
Prasad. He said that top most priority for the Power Department is to fulfil the requirements of the agri sector in view of ongoing paddy operations and farmers across the State are being provided a minimum of eight hours power supply.
Citing data of electricity time supplied to agriculture operations on Saturday, the CMD said that average supply hours for Border Zone comprising Gurdaspur, Sub Amritsar, and Taran Tarn was 12.4 hours, while Kapurthala, Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, and Nawanshahr districts of the North Zone received on average 10.3 hours of supply on the same day.
Similarly, farmers of Patiala, Sangrur, Barnala, Ropar, and Mohali districts that form the South Zone got on average 9.6 hours of electricity supply during the same period. Areas of Bathinda, Faridkot, Sri Muktsar Sahib, and Ferozpur got 8.9 hours average supply. Overall state average of power supply hours to the sector on the same day turned out to be 9.8 hours, he said. Ludhiana industry operational from Sunday
The PSPCL CMD said that amidst sustained peak power demand levels, Ludhiana industry has started operations from Sunday afternoon.
Ludhiana industry regulation is over and the Continuous Process Industry in the State, except those dealing in essential services, will be allowed to operate at 30 percent capacity from Monday, he said.
Units dealing in essential services, including poultry, rice shellers, telecom, and call centres have been exempted from these restrictions and are allowed to operate fully, he added.
