The power position in Punjab continues to be grim as power cuts ranging
 from three to six hours are being imposed in the state.
The supply to the agriculture sector is for 3.5 hours only against the demand of 8-hour power supply by the farmers. and the gap between demand and supply is more than 1000 MW and PSPCL is purchasing power on a day-ahead basis and real-time,

 basis to bridge the gap.,All India Power Engineers Federation Spokesperson (AIPEF) V K Gupta claimed in a statement here on Monday.
On Sunday PSPCL purchased 285 lakh units at an average price of Rs. 11.60 per unit.

The power supply on Sunday was 1796 lakh units against the demand of 1892 lakh units. In terms of load, the power shortage was more than 1000 MW. The maximum demand is about  8850 MW and PSPCL is purchasing power on a day-ahead basis and also on a real-time basis.
In the case of Punjab, all private coal-based plants have less than 2day coal stock. Rajpura has 1.9 days stock, Talwandi Sabo 1.6 days and GVK has 0.8 days stock. Ropar thermal has 3.6 days coal stock and Lehra Mohabatt has 7.8 days stock.
 These plants are just dependent upon the daily receipt of coal which is in short supply.
Ropar, GVK, Lehra Mohabatt thermals did not receive any coal yesterday.
On Monday, Ropar and Talwandi Sabo are running at half load due to a coal shortage problem.

AIPEF Spokesperson V K Gupta  said that like Punjab, the power utilities which are away from coal pitheads are facing coal shortage problems as the majority of the thermal power plants have coal stock of just three to four days.
 Most of the thermal plants across the country had not built sufficient coal stock
as per CEA norms before the onset of monsoon.
Following reduced thermal generation now, the power cuts of different durations have been imposed in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar,
Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamilnadu, Maharashtra, and many other states.

As India's industrial and commercial activities started picking up after August after a deadly second wave of Covid-19, demand for power jumped by 17% as compared to the same period in 2019. Now the problem has become acute now. Further, the plants using imported coal reduced the import of coal as its prices increased
in the international market.
Some states like Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, UP, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh were not getting enough coal as they have not paid their dues to coal companies. It may be mentioned that the dues towards coal India
 (CIL) exceeds Rs.21000 crore.