People in cities and villages have been facing power cuts following a long spell of intense heatwave since May. Consumers buying devices, including ACs, and not enhancing electricity load also adds to the power woes.
While Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) says that they have managed to meet the high power demand, residents in many towns and villages complain of frequent and long power cuts. They rue that the power supply is being disrupted at odd hours.
According to information from consumers in Amritsar, Bathinda, Sangrur, Ferozepur, Ludhiana and Jalandhar, power pangs have been reported in rural and urban belts almost daily. Following complaints of emergency load shedding, power outages persist due to local breakdowns.
“On the paper, there is no shortage of electricity, but, on the ground, the situation is different as power outages are reported every day for different reasons,” said a PSPCL official.
The official said the major reason behind power outages was that consumers bought electric gadgets like ACs, coolers, fans and other appliances but did not apply for load enhancement, leading to snags in transformers and supply lines. “While the sale of air conditioners has gone north, power load has not been increased proportionately. Rampant power theft during the elections is another reason”, he said.
Due to intense heat amid the rising temperature in May, the power demand in Punjab touched 14,509 MW against last year’s maximum demand of 11,987 MW. The power demand in May increased by more than 20 per cent over last year. The average daily supply has also increased by around 37 per cent to 2,338 lakh units per day against last year’s supply of 1,700 LU per day.
A senior PSPCL official said: “No scheduled or unscheduled cuts are imposed in any area. There may be supply interruptions in small pockets due to localised faults in the lines/transformer, etc due to various technical snags, but not due to power shortage”.
“On an average, there has been 79 per cent higher power supply and consumption in the state during the last three weeks of May without any major power snag. For the power disruptions in the cities like Ludhiana, Amritsar, Jalandhar, the shortage of staff and illegal construction of buildings are the reasons”, he said.
The maximum daily power supply by the PSPCL was 2,333 LU on May 23 last year and this year it touched 2,875 LU the same day. On June 1, Punjab saw the demand of 12,433 MW up from 6,219 MW the same day last year.
“Not only Punjab, but the overall power demand in northern states has also reached an all-time high. On May 30, the northern region saw the demand reaching an all-time high of 86.7 GW. In May, the average daily power demand crossed 14,000 MW in Punjab, 12,000 MW in Haryana, 29,000 MW in Uttar Pradesh, 17,000 MW in Rajasthan and 8,300 MW in Delhi”, said VK Gupta, All-India Power Engineers Federation spokesperson.
The reason
The major reason behind power outages is that consumers buy gadgets like ACs, coolers and other appliances but do not apply for power load enhancement, leading to snags in transformers and supply lines.
Demand touched 14,509 MW in May