PATIALA: Punjab’s power crisis continued on Thursday amid coal shortage that led to the closure of two units of Talwandi Sabo Power Limited (TSPL) and one unit of Lehra Mohabbat. The power cuts were imposed on various category consumers but were less in comparison to the last four days.
Eight of the 10 running units had to operate at reduced load thus generating about 3,000MW on Thursday afternoon. The hydropower generation is around 440MW. The coal stock with TSPL is around two days, while NPL and GVK power plants have 1.5 days of coal stock. The TSPL officials claimed that around one lakh MT of coal is in transit. The NPL officials said they have 42,000MT of coal available with them so far. The GVK officials revealed that around 10,000MT of coal was available in the plant while 20,000MT of coal was in transit. Sources revealed that on Wednesday the power plants in Punjab received 10 rakes of coal while 49 rakes were in transit.
Sources also said the power from Tata Mundra may be available by Friday as one of its five 800MW units at Mundra started on Wednesday to power up Gujarat and Punjab. The first unit gives 600MW to Gujarat and 160MW to Punjab. The second unit will come up by Thursday night and the third by Saturday morning. The Ranjit Sagar Dam project has started its operation and is generating about 120MW.
On Wednesday restricted power supply in the state was 1952 lakh units and the demand was 2005 lakh units. PSPCL CMD A Venu Prasad said PSPCL has met maximum power demand of 9,363MW in the state on Wednesday while the PSPCL had to purchase around 1,500MW of power from power exchange at a rate of Rs.11.29 per unit on Thursday. He said only 10 coal rakes of coal were received against the requirement of 22 rakes.
“There has been a noticeable change in weather as the temperatures have started a downward trend. Agricultural demand has also started to recede and consequently, the power demand has also started to decline and will considerably reduce within the next two to three days. The power supply position has shown marked improvement as adequate agriculture supply was provided and the quantum of power cuts were very nominal yesterday. The supply position is likely to improve further as no power cuts are likely to be imposed in coming days,” said the CMD.
Director Generation PSPCL, Paramjeet Singh said, “We got 100 MW power from Mundra on Thursday as only one unit works. From tomorrow we might get 475 MW. ”
PSERC must look into violations
All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) in a letter to Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) has urged it to intervene as there are gross violations of power purchase agreement (PPA) between Tata power and PSPCL. They said the PSPCL is procuring electricity at a rate higher than the PPA rate and there was no basis to bypass the PSERC.
They urged that PSPCL should take legal opinion on such matters of PPAs, as it has been already decided by the Supreme Court. The AIPEF said the move could reduce pressure on domestic coal and help bring down prices on power exchanges. “For 475 MW, it will cost Rs 3 crore daily to PSPCL and ultimately to consumers.
Punjab’s own power generation cost is around Rs 4 per unit and its coal-fired power plants are operating at low capacity due to domestic coal shortage, resulting in power outages and restrictions on consumers. Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Haryana are among the five consumers of the Mundra project that stopped operations as imported coal prices touched $150 per tonne,” AIPEF said.
