The Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) is imposing cuts of 6-8 hours in rural areas of the state and up to 3 hours in all major cities as it is unable to meet the rising demand due to less electricity generation amid the ongoing paddy sowing season and soaring temperatures.

Whereas the rural belts have been witnessing major outages for the last four days, unscheduled cuts were put in place in urban pockets on Tuesday. The situation will remain grim in the coming days as the power demand is rising by the day accompanied by a delay in monsoon.

Even in urban industrial areas, cuts to tune of over 2 hours were imposed. The power supply to farmers was only 6 hours, against the promise of eight, and that too with frequent interruptions. On Monday, the power demand in Punjab reached 14,225 megawatt (MW) against the supply of 12,695 MW, leaving a gap of nearly 1,550 MW.

While one unit of the private-run Talwandi Sabo power plant is completely shut since March 8, another has also developed snag and is operating at half of its capacity, generating only 960 MW against its total installed capacity of 1,980 MW.

lso, a unit of the Ropar thermal plant went out of operation, causing a shortage of another 210 MW. Power generation at the hydel power plants is also less due to low water levels in the dams.

“The gap in demand and supply was despite the fact that Punjab has purchased almost 500 lakh units from the grid. The failure of private plants to provide committed supply during the peak season has resulted in the shortage. Otherwise, there were no cuts in the last two years,” said a PSPCL official.

BBMB requested to increase generation

PSPCL chairman-cum-managing director (CMD) A Venu Prasad said they have requested the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) to increase power generation.

In a letter, Prasad asked the BBMB chairman to explore the modalities to generate more power from the Bhakra project and run all available units round the clock to provide relief to farmers.