Centre, state govt responsible for crisis : PSEB engineers
PATIALA: The PSEB engineers’ association (PSEBEA) has blamed the Centre and the Punjab government for the unprecedented power crisis in the state fuelled by insufficient coal supply and unwanted closure of thermal plants in Bathinda and Ropar among other reasons, warning that the situation is expected to worsen in the coming months.
The association said that as per available data, Punjab is currently facing about 2,000 MW shortage, resulting in long power cuts across the state and the situation is expected to aggravate during the months of June and July.
The grim power situation in Punjab is driven by insufficient coal supply, inadequate coal stocks in power plants, failure of IIPs at most crucial times, non-operationalisation of Pachwara coal mine, no addition in state sector generation, it said.
Unwanted closure of 880 MW state sector capacity thermal plants at Bathinda and Ropar and not adding enough state sector generation keeping in view the growth in power demand due to unprecedented heatwave conditions has also led to the power woes of the state, it said.
PSEBEA president Jasvir Singh Dhiman said that the lopsided decision of premature closure of thermal plants at Bathinda and two units at Ropar from January 1, 2018 have added to the power crisis.
These units were closed without carrying out any techno-commercial analysis. Had these units been available at the present then the power crisis would have been mitigated to some extent, he added.
The systematic failure of the decision-makers in ignoring ground realities, professional advice and a casual approach toward the power sector has brought the sector to the brink of this crisis, general secretary Ajayvir Singh Atwal.
PSEBEA said that nonpayment of subsidy bills by the Punjab government has added to the distress of PSPCL to make timely payments for power and coal purchase. Subsidy bill to the tune of Rs. 9,020 Cr. is unpaid by the Punjab government for the year 2021-22. As of date, Rs. 2,679 Cr is pending against state government departments.