Under-declared load strains power utilities in Punjab
Ruchika M Khanna
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, July 30
With deficit monsoon pushing the power consumption up in the state, under-declared load (47.83 per cent) by domestic consumers is making estimation of power demand a tough exercise for the authorities.
According to the figures available with The Tribune, of the 78.25 lakh domestic power consumers, 16 lakh have less than 0.5 kilowatt (kW) sanctioned load, while 21.43 lakh have 0.5-1 kW load. However, their power consumption is much higher than the sanctioned load. Since estimations for the power demand are based on the sanctioned load, the lower sanctioned load than the actual drawn power is making the estimate of demand go haywire.
Subsidy bill set to surge
- Power demand by both agriculture and domestic consumers has gone up due to deficient monsoon
- This will lead to an increase in power subsidy bill by ~2,400 crore this fiscal, sources say
- Punjab's total power subsidy bill is estimated to be around ~22,000 crore for 2024-25
Officials in the state power utilities said though they had approached the state power regulator Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission and Supply Code Review, seeking permission to increase the sanctioned load by using three-month average (higher) consumption by such consumers, the go-ahead was yet to come.
“Even the voluntary disclosure scheme announced earlier this year failed to illicit the desired response. Only 1.75 lakh consumers came forward to get their sanctioned power load enhanced,” said a senior officer in the PowerCom.
This year, the monsoon is deficient by 44 per cent so far. The long dry spell and the increasing power demand in the agriculture sector has pushed the state power utilities to their limit, with the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) creating new records in power supply every few days and supplying an average over 3,600 lakh units of power a day.
The top officials in the state power utility insist that there are no power cuts. Wherever there is an outage, it is because of some local technical snag in the transmission and distribution system.
“Punjab’s power demand has continued to go skywards since May due to intense heat wave; preponing of paddy transplantation in June; and, abated monsoon during July. The PSPCL managed to meet the challenge of surged power demand by optimising its operations, particularly enhancing its thermal power generation, banking of power with other states; and, optimising purchase from exchange, particularly during day time, when cheaper solar power is available; and on Sundays, when exchange rates are low because of dipped demand in commercial and industrial units,” said a senior officer, adding that all state-run power plants were working at 75-90 per cent plant load factor (PLF).
