Brutal power cuts

Rendering more brutal the searing brunt of the early and intense heatwave are the long power outages in villages and towns of Punjab. With thermal plants developing snags or falling short of coal to meet the sudden rise in demand for electricity to beat the heat, the authorities have been once again caught napping. It is ironic that while providing ‘free electricity’ was a major Assembly poll plank of AAP and among the first few promises to be taken up after its victory, the government failed to go into the nitty-gritty of also ensuring uninterrupted power. Had Bhagwant Mann’s regime — that looks up to the ‘Delhi model’ for tackling Punjab’s challenges — looked beyond the populist slogan, perhaps, unscheduled load-shedding could have been avoided. For, electricity is one sector that Kejriwal is proud of having transformed through smart governance.

The PSPCL and the power department have all the safeguards prescribed to ensure that things do not come to such a pass, yet they are regularly found ill-prepared. For example, though the thermal plants, particularly those over 1,000 km away from a coal mine, are expected to have enough coal to tide over at least 22 days, many are critically placed, with just a few days of stock. In fact, abundant supplies can also help the state absorb the rise in coal prices that have been on a northward trajectory for some years. The excuses of ‘sudden rise in temperatures’ or the monsoon hitting coal production ring lame and reek of non-coordination with the Met department that is increasingly getting equipped to more accurately predict weather. The authorities responsible for having all plant machinery in shape throughout the year should be answerable for the glitches that halt power production so frequently.

Other states like Haryana, UP, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh are similarly gripped by a power crisis. Foolproof measures must be evolved and implemented, including a faster shift to renewable energy, before bigger towns, industrial clusters and agricultural activities too become susceptible to power cuts and the economy takes a hit.