Punjab is reeling under the acute shortage of power generation which has affected almost every sector and consumer across the state. However, the current shortage of power supply has affected the industries more against any other consumers as they require an immense amount of power for goods manufacturing.
On Saturday, shut down of the third unit of Talwandi Sabo Thermal Power Plant has worsened the situation and the entire units of electricity generation area is now completely non-functional.
Earlier, other two units of the power plant had developed technical snag which could not be solved until now.
A Venu Prasad, CMD, PSPCL said, “We have been repeatedly directing the plant authorities to ensure the availability of all three units in the paddy season. But they have failed to do so. Due to the failure of its third unit, we are facing difficulties in meeting the demand.”
Amidst all this, PSPCL has issued a circular to the industries stating severe power outages beyond July 11. This however will put industries into severe distress as they will not be able to deliver their usual output. The severe power outages as per the circular will come into effect from July 11 and will run till July 15.
Industries which used to get electricity under 1000 KVA
from Category 1, Category 2 and Category 3 feeders (all zones) will be supplied
up to 10 percent of their supply or 50 KVA than the required.
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This bargain in power supply will be done for 8 hours a day from July 11 to July 15.
Notably, as the units of many thermal plants are non-operational, all categories of consumers across the state are facing power cuts Owing to this, the government has changed the timings of government offices so that an adequate amount of electricity can be supplied to agriculture sector and industries.
On the other hand, the state government has directed the plant officials to make all efforts to restart generation at the earliest. It has also issued the notice to the plant officials to explain why capacity charges should not be deducted for the entire contract year (2021-22), considering the non-availability of its units.
In a sigh of relief, the PSPCL has been able to purchase 350 MW power from the exchange at Rs 3.75 per unit and another 531 MW at Rs 3.21 per unit to meet the shortage.