Punjab State Power Corporation (Powercom) has not been able to do bank electricity due to record demand in winter this year. In the year 2022-23, Powercom had banked 5729 million units of electricity and withdrawn 6041 million units. However, due to absence of sun and prevalence of excessive fog for the last 25 days, electricity could not be generated from the solar plant, hence they had to buy expensive electricity. Powercom purchased electricity for 1069 million units in January at an average rate of Rs 6.95 per unit, spending an eye-watering Rs 714 crore. Eng. DPS Grewal, Director Distribution PSPCL said that this year due to excessive cold and fog, a record increase in the demand for electricity had been recorded.
Apart from this, due to lack of sunlight for several days, the production of electricity generated from solar plants was brought to a complete halt. On the other hand, electricity output from Ranjit Sagar Dam was also stopped during its cleaning. Due to high demand and low production, Powercom had to buy electricity from outside sources at very expensive prices. As a result, electricity could not be banked. According to experts, if demand continues to increase like this, there may be long powercuts in the summer season.
Experts also say that Punjab citizens will have to suffer the consequences of lack of electricity storage during the peak summer season. Due to the rapidly increasing electricity connections, it is possible that the peak demand will exceed 16 thousand MW, which will prove to be a big challenge to face. On the financial front, Powercom will have to make preparations from now to make arrangements for purchase as per the prevailing electricity prices. During previous summer season, Powercom was able to meet the demands of electricity due to favorable rains and favorable weather. But this season there has been neither rain nor snowfall in the mountains, which means that the heat could also be more intense this summer than in the past.