PATIALA: A former engineer of the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) Baldev Singh Sran on Wednesday took over as the chairman cum managing director of the corporation for a period of two years.
He took over in presence of Cabinet minister for power Gurpreet Singh Kangar, who said government hoped that under the new CMD the power corporation would continue to implement government policies to provide quality and uninterrupted power to the state consumers.
The ceremony was also attended by former union minister Preneet Kaur, Congress MLA Hardial Singh Kamboj and senior leader Harry Mann along with top functionaries of the PSPCL.
Sran, born on February 7, 1960, is a graduate from Guru Nanak Dev Engineering College Ludhiana in B.Sc. Engineering (Electrical) with honours. He started his career as Trainee Engineer in BHEL in 1982 and the erstwhile Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) as Trainee Engineer in 1983. He was elevated to the level of Chief Engineer. He served PSPCL more than 34 years at various important assignments and has rich experience in generation (19 years), transmission (6 years) and distribution (8 years).
During his 18 years tenure in generation, he worked in construction as well as in operation and maintenance (O&M) of thermal plants and was a key member in project planning and analysing the cost of generation, fuel cost, employee cost, auxiliary consumption, maintenance schedules, operational efficiency, which are the main components concerning tariff.
Working as chief engineer fuel, he looked after fuel management for state-owned thermal plants and independent power producers on behalf of PSPCL. As Chief Engineer (ARR and TR) he had handled all vital issues related to tariff and regulatory matters and also coordinating for tariff and regulatory matters with Punjab State and Centre Electricity Regulatory Commissions.
While serving as Chief Engineer Hydel projects, he looked after operation and maintenance of existing Hydel projects of PSPCL, design, engineering, construction and commissioning of New Hydel projects at Mukerian Stage-II (2X9 MW) and 206 MW Shahpur Kandi (SKPP). In addition, he also looked after maintenance planning, contracting, renovation and modernization of various Hydel projects. The hydropower generation of Punjab increased by 22% in 2017-18 during his stint as Chief engineer Hydel and resultantly the PSPCL saved Rs 325 crores.