Punjab’s rural areas and industrial consumers have been suffering through frequent and long power cuts for the last two days. The state has been facing power shortage of about 2050 MW, out of the total demand of around 9500 MW, leading to the imposition of long power cuts for 6 to 8 hours in rural areas and of lesser duration in cities. The power cut for the urban industry is of 6 hours. For rural consumers, power cuts are imposed for up to 12 hours and in cities, unscheduled cuts are imposed.
The situation of power crisis became worse on Wednesday, when two more units (one at Guru Gobind Singh Super Thermal Power Plant at Ropar and other at Talwandi Sabo Power Limited plant at Mansa) were shut due to technical issues.
But as per the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL), the power supply situation across Punjab will improve today.
According to PSPCL, one unit of Guru Gobind Singh Super Thermal Plant at Ropar, which was closed for a month for annual maintenance, started generation on Thursday, while another unit at Talwandi Sabo Power Limited Plant at Mansa (closed because of a snag) will start generation on Friday morning. Baldev Singh Sran, the CMD of PSPCL has said, “this will fulfil the surge in power demand and the power supply situation will normalise”.
Due to hot weather and dry spell, Punjab’s average power demand during April is 30-35% higher than previous year, we are working to meet the same. There were simultaneous faults at two plants, leading to shortfall of 810 MW on Wednesday, said Mr. Sran.
On Wednesday, there was a shortage of 282 lakh units in the state. The power supply was 1,684 lakh units against the demand of 1,966 lakh units. With the rise in day temperature, the maximum demand is around 9600 MW with a shortage of 2050 MW.
Amid power cuts, the AAP government is facing heavy criticism from the opposition as well as the people of Punjab. While the former PPCC chief and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu protested outside a Rajpura thermal power plant, a farmer union led by Joginder Singh Ugrahan protested in Mansa. On the other hand, Punjab Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa has urged the Centre to bail out Punjab as the state nears a blackout. “If the Government of India does not bail us out there would be a complete blackout in the Punjab in coming days. It is a very serious situation. Bhagwant Mann is touring Delhi to see the swimming pools while his own state is swoting and is in a worst electricity crisis” said Bajwa.
