As soon as the mercury crosses 33 degrees in Punjab, the demand for electricity has increased. On the other hand, the shortage of coal has imposed another challenge for the government. The electricity board has started imposing an undeclared cut of two and a half hours in rural areas every night between 8 and 10 o'clock. If soon the demand for coal is not met in the state, undeclared cuts may start taking place in urban areas too.
How much coal is left in Punjab?
At present, in Talwandi Sabo one day coal is left, in Rajpura plant for two days coal is left, GVK power plant Goindwal sahib has coal left for two days, in Ropar for eighteen days and in Lehra Mohabbat thermal plant for 20 days coal is left.
In Rajpura, only one thermal power plant is operational at present. Whereas, in Talwandi sabo two out of three units are currently available for production and in GVK only one unit in available. Punjab is getting 2710 megawatt from outside states and about 2200 megawatt from various resources.
Demand for Coal
The demand for electricity has increased to 7409 megawatts, which was 6000-megawatt last week, although it is 1195 megawatt less than in March 2021, last year there was a demand of 8604 megawatts for electricity these days.
On Tuesday, the office-bearers of power com association met Power Minister Harbhajan Singh. They will be called once again for this issue.