Electricity crisis looms over Punjab as Railways blocks coal supply

Trains to remain suspended for now: Railway Board CEO

Punjab is staring at an electricity crisis with three of the state’s five power plants running out of coal stock.

A farmer’s agitation in Punjab, called in protest against the farm laws passed by the Centre, led the Indian Railways to stop freight services, fearing damage. With coal supply affected, the state has started enforcing power cuts since the generation units have limited stock.

Railways suspended freight operations in the state on October 1, partially resumed services on October 23 and then suspended again.

As of November 4, coal availability (as number of days) was zero at three of Punjab’s thermal power plants. The other two had coal availability of six and 11 days.

In a meeting with the state government on Friday, the Railways reviewed resumption of services.  “The coal status in Punjab power plants is critical. A lot of coal rakes are waiting outside Punjab to go to the state and to Jammu and Kashmir. As soon as the blockade is over, we will give priority to the power sector,” said V K Yadav, chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Railway Board.

Over 230 rakes are held up outside the state and 78 of these are for the coal sector.

On September 24, farmers in Punjab started blocking railway tracks and stations demanding the three central agriculture legislation be repealed. Although all passenger and parcel train movements have been suspended in the state since September 24, goods train continued to run in some areas. From October 1, however, goods movement was also suspended as agitation spread all over Punjab.

Over the past 40 days, operation of 2,300 goods trains and 1,300 passenger trains has been impacted.

Punjab has five coal-based power plants with total installed capacity of 5,690 megawatt (Mw) — state-owned Guru Hargobind power plant (920 Mw) and Ropar plant (840 Mw); and privately owned Goindwal Sahib (540 Mw), Rajpura (1,400 Mw), and Talwandi Sabo (1,980 Mw). 

The state’s daily peak power demand was close to 5,000 Mw during the last two weeks. The other sources of power such as hydro, solar contribute close to 800 Mw to the power supply.

The drop in coal supply caused the power generation at the five units to fall to 3.3 million units on Wednesday, from 26 million units on October 23. This led to the state increasing its power purchase from the spot market. The state’s short-term power market purchase increased to 1,100 Mw at the beginning of this week.

Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Wednesday claimed there were no blockades in the state, while assuring safety to the Railways in a letter to Railway Minister Piyush Goyal. “It is pertinent to mention that there has been no incident of arson or damage to rail property during the current farmers’ agitation,” Amarinder Singh had said in the letter. 

The Railway Board CEO, however, said there were blockades in some parts of the state on Friday. “The Railways is trying to restore the operations and will start when we get security clearance from the state. On Friday evening, the blockade is still there on 22 locations. Today a meeting happened with the railway police force and state officials. We have asked the state government security for all the trains,” Yadav added.

According to official data, the Northern Railway has lost Rs 495 crore in freight operations from October 1 to November 3, while stopping passenger trains has cost it Rs 45 crore.