Despite tall claims of availability of surplus power, Punjab power utility PSPCL today resorted to load shedding on all categories of consumers including farmers and domestic category, citing poor monsoon and less power generation.
"Due to sudden increase in demand for power, owing to rise in temperature and poor monsoon combined with less availability of power from the new private thermal plants and lesser hydel generation, PSPCL is constrained to go for load shedding," Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd Chairman cum Managing Director K D Chaudhri said today.
Though PSPCL officials claimed that power cuts of up to 2 hours have been imposed on consumers, yet reports from various places suggest that power supply remained irregular through out the day.
CMD said Rajpura Thermal Plant which had commissioned two units of 700 MW each is only supplying 500 MW of power while Talwandi Sabo Thermal Plant which was earlier supplying 660 MW of power has stopped generation due to shortage of coal.
"This has reduced availability of 1560MW of power from IPPs," he said.
Chaudhri said PSPCL's preparation were adequate in anticipation of poor monsoon but reduced power supply from Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and lesser hydel generation, has widened the gap in demand and supply, forcing PSPCL to impose temporary regulatory measures on all category of consumers.
In view of precarious situation, Punjab Deputy CM Sukhbir Singh Badal held meetings with Railway Minister Sadananda Gowda who has assured to get coal supply expedited for thermal plants in Punjab.
CMD claimed that the situation was likely to improve in 4 to 5 days when coal supplies start reaching private power plants in Punjab.
