Amid the increasing demand for electricity in Punjab, the a hide-and-seek game is going inside thermal plants.
On Tuesday, a unit of 210 MW of the Ropar thermal plant was shut down. Apart from this, two units of 660 MW of Talwandi Sabo and 270 MW of Goindwal are not running. In this way, Powercom faced trouble in meeting the demand even on Tuesday due to the total shutdown of the 1140 MW power supply.
There was a hailstorm with rain at one or two places in Punjab on Tuesday. Despite this, the maximum power demand was recorded at 10,000 MW. In comparison, Powercom got 1350 MW from seven units of Ropar and Lehra Mohabbat, and 2742 MW from five units of Talwandi Sabo, Rajpura, and Goindwal, 316 MW from Hydel projects, and a total of 4550 MW from other sources.
To meet the demand, Powercom had to buy around 4100 MW of power from outside. Powercom got this electricity at the rate of about 10 rupees 70 paise per unit. Even after buying such expensive electricity, there was a gap of 1350 MW between demand and supply. Due to this Powercom had to cut the electricity supply, said a senior officer from Powercom.
On Tuesday, there were cuts of four hours in villages and five hours in the Kandi areas. As per officials, in terms of coal quantity, the Ropar plant has five, Lehra three, Talwandi Sabo seven, Rajpura maximum 20 days, and Goindwal only two days of coal left.
It is clear that in the coming paddy season, due to the shortage of coal in Punjab, there may be a huge power crisis. However, the Punjab government is continuously claiming that talks are being held with the central government to streamline the supply of coal.