PSPCL pays ₹20 crore daily to pvt plants as fixed cost
› The PSPCL is facing a difficult time. By March-end, we need to pay ₹1,200 crore in liabilities and salaries but do not have enough money.
BALDEV SINGH SRAN, PSPCL chief managing director
PATIALA: The Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) is not only facing a 50% dip in the demand for electricity due to the lockdown in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak but is also paying ₹20 crore daily as fixed cost to the private thermal plants as per the agreement even as they are completely shut.
The demand for power in Punjab in the last 24 hours was 680 lakh units against 1,230 lakh units on the corresponding day last year.
The state’s three private power plants at Rajpura, Talwandi Sabo and Goindwal have a combined capacity of 3,920 megawatt (MW). The power corporation’s own plants at Lehra Mohabbat and Rupnagar are also not operational. Right now, power is being supplied to consumers in the state from the Bhakra power project run by the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) and from the central pool.
“We have surrendered 7
crore units of power due to low demand. This has not only curtailed our sale of power but we are paying for power which we did not buy. Today, we paid ₹22 crore to the plants for surrendering power, including those from outside the state,” said a PSPCL official.
The corporation pays ₹3.60 crore to the Rajpura plant, ₹4.10 crore to the Talwandi Sabo plant and ₹2.20 crore to the Goindwal plant on a daily basis even it does not buy any power from them. The fixed cost is a major issue in Punjab, and the state government is likely to bring white paper on power purchase agreement (PPA) in the next monsoon session.
“The state government even stopped electricity generation at the Ranjit Sagar dam. Only solar and hydel plants, running downstream are working as we can’t shut them. We still have more power as the central allocation is above 2,200 MW and we have overall load of 2500 MW,” said an official.
PSPCL chief managing director (CMD) Baldev Singh Sran said, “The PSPCL is facing a difficult time. By March-end, we need to pay ₹1,200 crore in liabilities and salaries but do not have enough money. Power sale has nosedived while the fixed costs remain the same.”
“Also, we cannot sell power to the southern states as demand there too has dipped. This sudden crisis will slip the PSPCL into loss again. We are likely to suffer a loss of ₹450-₹500 crore due to the lockdown. We have asked the state government to take up the issue with the Centre to get fixed costs waived for the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and other government-run power plants,” he added.