Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) may face constraints in meeting maximum power demand during paddy season due to low reservoir levels at Bhakra along with limits for importing power from the grid.

The water level at Bhakra reservoir is 63 feet low this year as compared to last year's level.The reservoir level on March 31 was 1536 feet against last year's level of 1599 feet on a corresponding day.The water level at Ranjit Sagar Dam is 1638 feet which is about 31 feet as compared to last year.
With low water levels, the power generation at Bhakra and Ranjit Sagar will get reduced.
Padamjit Singh chief engineer (retd.) said that Punjab gets about 4000 million units of power from Bhakra powerhouses but this year this may reduce to 2800
millions of units. There is likely a shortage of about 1200 million units during the paddy season.

Punjab government has committed to an 8-hour uninterrupted power supply this year and PSPCL has claimed to make necessary arrangements for maintaining the proper power supply during the paddy season. The maximum power demand during the coming paddy season is likely to exceed 14000 MW this year against last year's demand of 13141 MW under pandemic conditions.

The PSPCL wrote to NRLDC on March 8 to enhance its total transfer capacity (TTC) and available transmission capacity (ATC) limit to import power from the northern grid for meeting the peak demand during the coming paddy season,
but NRLDC in its reply of 18th March suggested PSPCL to strengthen the power protection system and enhance the capacity of
it's transmission system to overcome the loading constraints.

The main power supply during paddy season comes from private thermal plants at
Talwandi Sabo, Rajpura, and Goindwl Sahib. Punjab has a 4600 MW share in the central sector plants and BBMB plants. Besides this PSPCL gets 2400 MW under banking arrangement with other states.PSPCL also purchases power on a short-term basis.
The power supply import through the northern grid is limited to 6600 MW for the safe operation of the grid. With an anticipated increase in maximum demand by 800 MW and lower availability of power from Bhakra powerhouses
the PSPCL will have to run its own thermal plants for a number of days in the paddy season.

The present coal stock at both the thermal plants is just sufficient for 7 days and PSPCL has suspended the coal supply to the thermal plants for the time being.A sufficient coal stock for 20 days is a must to run all the units at Ropar thermal and Lehra Mohabbat thermal. This will also help PSPCL in case of a thermal unit trip at Rajpura thermal or Talwandi Sabo thermal plant. The running of state thermal units will also help in stabilizing the grid.