PSEB cannot buy power at high rate due to financial crunch

The severe power crisis in Punjab is likely to continue as the state electricity board says it has no money to buy additional power at a high rate from private generators.     

The power from private generation companies is now available at Rs 11-12 per unit which the Punjab State Electricity Board cannot afford, PSEB Member (Transmission) S C Sabharwal said.     

"We cannot buy power at a rate more than Rs 7 per unit as it is not viable for us considering the board's fiscal situation," he said, adding that the board was facing cash losses worth Rs 6,600 crore.     

At present, the demand for power has exceeded the supply by 500 lakh units per day in the state, forcing the PSEB to resort to banning AC in state government offices, imposing over 10 hours power cuts, three-day power cut on general industries among others.     

As per the PSEB's Aggregate Revenue Requirement, the board has projected the cumulative revenue gap of Rs 8,546 crore for 2009-10 against the budgeted revenue gap of Rs 4,205 crore in 2008-09, on the back of annual power purchase of Rs 7,265 crore in current fiscal.     

It has also projected annual revenue gap of Rs 4,341 crore compared with gap of Rs 2,403 crore in 2008-09.
 
Although PSEB has committed to spend Rs 1,000 crore for buying power from additional resources for the months of June till September to ease the situation, but this measure is not likely to reduce the ballooning gap between demand and supply of power.      

Punjab would now start getting 800 Mw of power from July 1 from various power companies like Adani Power (175 Mw), Lanco (200 Mw), JSW (200 Mw), PTC (174 Mw) and Molana Power Plant (81 Mw), Sabharwal said. "With the inflow of even more power, the situation will continue to grim."     

PSEB has managed to save 40 lakh units from the banning of ACs, changing office timing and the board has supplied entire 40 lakh units to induction furnaces to run their units for 10 hours per day.