Punjab is top power seller in September

PSPCL earns ₹400 cr by selling 744 million units

It is for the first time that the utility has sold power worth ₹426 crore in a single month. It was sold at ₹5.73 per unit. BALDEV SINGH SRAN, PSPCL CMD

PATIALA : Punjab emerged as the number 1 power seller to the national grid in September and earned ₹426 crore by selling 744 million units, the highest among all states. “It is for the first time that PSPCL has sold power worth ₹426 crore to other states in one month. We did not impose any power cut on domestic consumers in Punjab, thus setting a new milestone in the state’s history. The power was sold at ₹5.73 per unit,” said PSPCL chairmancum-managing director Baldev Singh Sran.

Despite being power surplus for the last five years, it is for the first time this year that PSPCL has been able to sell electricity optimally to the grid.

The corporation has to shell out ₹2,700 crore annually as fixed costs to private plants even it does not draw any power from them. PSPCL, which had sold power worth ₹446 crore last financial year, has already sold nearly ₹600 crore in the ongoing financial year. It sells maximum power during winter months which are approaching.

Sran said with this pace, PSPCL is likely to sell more that ₹1,000 crore power in winters.

PSPCL supplied more power within the state even as there was 880 MW reduction in installed capacity due to the closure of the Bathinda thermal plant and two units of the Ropar thermal plant besides 400 MW reduction in power generation from its hydel and Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) plants due to less inflow of water.