The depleting stock of coal in the thermal power plants of Punjab spiralled the state into deeper crisis on Monday, as unscheduled power cuts were again imposed on all categories of consumers and state-run power discom PSPCL was forced to purchase around 1,500 MW of power for Rs 14.46 per unit.
A day earlier, on Sunday, PSPCL had purchased 285 lakh units at an average price of Rs 11.6 per unit. On Saturday, the power discom bought power at Rs 13 per unit.
Consumers had to face power cuts lasting up to four hours. Punjab State Power Corporation Limited officials described the state’s coal stock position as critical. They said only 12 rakes of coal were received on Sunday, against the daily requirement of 22 rakes.
PSPCL is procuring power from the market, especially to cater to the power demand of agriculture sector.

PSPCL chief managing director (CMD) A Venu Prasad said the corporation met maximum demand of 8,885 MW of Punjab state on Sunday and about 1500 MW of power had to be purchsed from power exchange to meet the gap between supply and demand. “Power supply to agriculture sector improved considerably on Sunday, wherein supply of about six hours was given. The quantum of power cuts on other categories of consumers also remained significantly less. We hope power availability is likely to improve within 1-2 days as additional quantum of about 400 MW is expected to be received from state sector and other outside longterm sources. One more unit of GGSSTP, Ropar, shall also start generating power from Tuesday,” said Prasad. “Moreover, 50MW generation from Anandpur Sahib hydel project also started on Monday; it will increase to 100MW shortly,” he added.
Power supply on Sunday was 1,796 lakh units against the demand of 1,892 lakh units. In terms of load, the power shortage was more than 1,000 MW. Maximum demand is around 8,850 MW. “Power utilities which are away from coal pithead are facing a coal shortage. Many thermal power plants are left with three-four days of coal stock. A number of thermal plants in the country failed to maintain the coal stock as per CEA guidelines and now states like Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, and others are facing power cuts,” said AIPEF spokesperson V K Gupta.
Coal stock sitution
In Punjab, all private coal-based plants have less than two days of coal stock remaining. The power plant at Rajpura has 1.9 days of stock, and it is 1.6 days in Talwandi Sabo and 0.8 days at GVK in Tarn Taran. Sate-owned plants have less than 4 days of coal stock left. Ropar thermal has 3.6 days of coal stock and Lehra Mohabatt has 7.8 days of stock. State-based coal-based plants are still operating at 50% capacity.
Unit of GVK shut
One unit of GVK thermal plant has shut down due to coal depletion. A GVK official confirmed that one unit of GVK power plant in Tarn Taran was shut down on Sunday. The official said the plant’s second unit was running at full capacity and the plant had around 10,000 MT of coal stocked.