Punjab unlikely to buy short tem power for summer months

With new power generation capacities coming up this year, state-owned power utility PSPCL is unlikely to buy costly short-term power for meeting demand during summer months and for paddy sowing.

"We have made our internal assessment and we have found that we will not require short-term power because of new power generation capacities getting commissioned," Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd (PSPCL) Director, Generation, G S Chhabra told PTI.

Not buying short term power will bring financial savings over Rs 1,000 crore to PSPCL, another official said.

Power utility, in normal course, buys 1,000-1,500 MW as short term power from different sources in January or February in order to meet power requirements during peak summer months and for paddy sowing.
 

Paddy-sowing in Punjab starts from June 10 and power requirement during this time goes up considerably for drawing underground water by farmers for watering the crop. Farm sector is given daily eight hours of power to the agriculture sector.

The 700 MW of Rajpura thermal power plant (2X700) developed by Larsen and Toubro has already been commissioned commercially. While another 700 MW is expected to be commissioned by May, official informed.

The first unit of 660 MW of Talwandi Sabo power plant (3X660MW) is expected to come up commercially in February this month, he said. Developed by Vedanta Group at Mansa district, the first unit became operational on November 25 last year.

"Before paddy sowing, we will have 2,000 MW of new power generation coming up," he said.

However, the 2x270 MW Goindwal thermal plant which has been developed by GVK power is awaiting commercial operations for want of coal.

Punjab has total thermal capacity generation of 2620 MW. Besides, it has hydel projects of 1000 MW, share from BBMB at 1110 MW, share from central projects 2507 MW, cogeneration 469 MW, taking state's total power capacity at 7706 MW.

When summer season reaches peak, the demand for power outpaces supply, leading to heavy load shedding. The demand for power during summer in the state goes up by 20-25 per cent to more than 9000 MW, leading to severe power shortage in the state, official sources said.

Notably, in it Aggregate Annual Requirement (ARR) submitted with power regulator Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) for 2014-15, PSPCL has projected a hike of almost 20 per cent in power purchase at Rs 9,247.95 crore.