Power crisis in Punjab has further deepened with one unit of the state-run thermal plant at Ropar also shutting down on Wednesday night whereas already two units of a private thermal plant, TSPL, are shut following technical problems and the remaining third unit is running on half capacity following technical snag.
The closing down of one unit in Ropar and reduction to half load of the remaining one unit of TSPL has added into the state power shortage of around 500 MW (120 lakh units in a day) generation from within Punjab. One unit of Lehra Mohabbat plant also got tripped on Thursday at around 1.30pm due to technical fault, but got operational again after four and half hours.
Ropar power plant chief engineer Ravi Kumar Wadhwa said following boiler leakage one out of the four units got shut down and would be operational by July 10 morning.
“With the closure of industry up to July 11 and reduced power load from offices, the PSPCL is still facing shortage of power. The position will improve only after the onset of monsoon in the state,” said VK Gupta, All-India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) spokesperson.
On Wednesday, Punjab supplied 2,929 lakh units with a maximum demand of 12,438 MW. Power supply in the state, despite restrictions, was short by 127 lakh units against the requirement of 3,057 lakh units. There was a shortage of 650 MW during evening peak hours. BBMB powerhouses generated 398 lakh units and Punjab’s share is around 40%. Bhakra powerhouses generated 225 lakh units although the water level in the reservoir is down by 56 feet as compared to last year’s level on the corresponding day.

Ranjit Sagar Dam with a low reservoir level is also generating less power. The total gross generation in Punjab on Thursday stands reduced to 4,740 MW against normal availability of more than 5,500 MW.
Chairman and managing director of PSPCL A Venu Prasad said, “Punjab is witnessing all-time high demand in the ongoing paddy season due to delayed monsoon arrival. The power availability is also on the lower side this season due to low reservoir levels in dams resulting into less hydro power by about 600 MW. One unit of TSPL has been on forced outage due to turbine breakdown, another developed a technical snag on July 7 and the third one is operating at half capacity due to some technical issue. This has resulted into a shortage of nearly 2,200 MW.”
“To tide over the situation in addition to the existing arrangements, PSPCL has purchased extra power of 400 MW from the open market at Rs 12.40 per unit on July 8. Total 1,400 MW power purchased for Thursday at an exchange rate of 5.46 / unit. On the request of the Punjab government, National Load Despatch Centre has agreed to enhance the ATC/TTC limit to 8,000/8,600 MW from 6pm to 9am due to an outage of TSPL unit. PSPCL is utilizing this limit by importing maximum possible power to improve the supply position. Last year the same import limit was only 6,500 MW. The installed capacity of PSPCL from all sources is 13,845 MW out of this about 9,000 MW is being generated. Major reason for lesser generation is due to failure of TSPL, less generation on BBMB,” Venu Prasad said, adding that despite various remedial measures, PSPCL had been forced to impose power regulatory measures on south and border zones to make up for the shortage. However, efforts were being made to continue supplying eight-hour uninterrupted power to AP consumers, he added.