Will meet power demand in paddy season: PSPCL

Aman Sood

Tribune News Service

Patiala, May 28

The Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) has said it is ready for the upcoming paddy season but did not rule out regulatory measures in case of deficient rainfall or shortage in power generation by Independent Power Producers (IPPs). It has assured an eight-hour power supply for paddy fields.

Officials of the PSPCL said from the next paddy season, the state would be “power-surplus” as generation would start at two additional units of Talwandi Sabo Thermal Plant (1320 MW), which is expected this summer, and two units of Goindwal Sahib (540 MW), which is expected in October-November.

KD Chaudhri, chairman-cum-managing director, PSPCL, claimed the corporation was fully geared up to meet the additional power demand during paddy season. “The load pattern of Punjab is such that the demand for power crosses 1,2000 MW during the paddy season whereas it remains in the range of 3,000 MW to 6,000 MW during the rest of the eight months. “The present availability of power in the state is more than 12,000 MW and the transmission capacity to take power from Central Sector Units is 5,700 MW,” he said.

“All thermal plants of the PSPCL are also geared up to generate power to their full capacity and there is a coal stock reserve of 25 days at each plant. Besides, efforts are on to get more coal from Coal India Limited,” he said.

Meanwhile, the PSPCL has said short-term power purchase arrangements have been made and efforts are on to get additional power from unallocated pool of Central Sector Power.