PATIALA: The power engineers have accused the Punjab government of closing the Bathinda thermal plant and two units of Ropar thermal plant in violation of the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) norms. The All India Power Engineers Federation (AIPEF) released its white paper on closure of the thermal plants.

“The decision of Punjab government to shut down Bhatinda power plant and two units of Ropar thermal plant are in contravening of the CEA norms,” said AIPEF president Padamjit Singh. He said that the recently released reports of CEA state that there are 34 power units in the country, with a capacity of 7570MW, which are undergoing life extension work. In this list, two units of Ropar thermal plants are also mentioned, for which, money is to be released for their upgrade.

On the other hand, the Punjab government has ordered closure of two Ropar units, even as the renovation and modernisation (R&M) work are in progress, by which, the life of the units could be extended by 15-20 years.

With this decision of the state government, the expenditure already incurred on the R&M of unit 1 in Ropar, which is ?131 crore, will go waste. “The air preheater, which was procured from Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), at a cost of ?24.5 crore and was received at the Ropar thermal plant, still remains unused due to the decision to shut down Ropar units 1 and 2 from January 1, this year,” mentioned the white paper.

It further mentioned that Punjab has no plan (or contingency plan) for meeting the peak energy demands of the state in the upcoming paddy season. On the contrary, the Northern Regional Load Dispatch Centre (in Delhi) has cautioned that all six units of Ropar thermal should be operated in order to meet the energy demands of the state.

The proposal to purchase extra power from the northern grid will not solve the overloading and low voltage problems of Ludhiana. For this, the load centre generation at Ropar is considered to be necessary, said the power engineers. AIPEF has called upon the state government to take immediate steps to withdraw its decision to retire state thermal units, restore four units of Bhatinda and two units of Ropar to operational status, and start building up the coal stock for paddy season.