Patiala :
CMD PSPCL Shri A.Venu Prasad said that Punjab is witnessing all time high demand in the ongoing paddy season due to delayed monsoon arrival. He said that the power availability is also on the lower side this season due to low reservoir levels in dams resulting into less hydro power by about 600 MW.He informed that one unit of Talwandi Sabo Power Ltd. (TSPL) has been on forced outage since March 2021 due to turbine breakdown, another unit has developed a technical snag on 07.07.2021 and the third one is operating at half capacity due to some technical issue. This has resulted into a shortage of nearly 2200 MW.
Shri A.Venu Prasad disclosed that to tide over the situation, PSPCL in addition to the existing arrangements has purchased extra power of 400 MW from the open market @ Rs 12.40 per unit on July 8, 2021. Total 1400 MW power purchased for July 8, 2021 at an exchange rate of 5.46 / unit.
He said that on the request of Punjab Government, NLDC has agreed to enhance the ATC/TTC limit to 8000/8600 MW from 18.00 hrs to 09.00 hrs due to outage of TSPL unit.
PSPCL is utilizing this limit by import of maximum possible power to improve the supply position. Last year the same import limit was only 6500 MW.
He said that the installed capacity of PSPCL from all sources is 13, 845 MW out of this about 9, 000 MW is being generated. Major reason for lesser generation is due to failure of TSPL, less generation on BBMB. He also added that despite various remedial measures, PSPCL has been forced to impose power regulatory measures on South and Border Zones to make up for the shortage. PSPCL is making all out efforts to continue supplying 8- hour uninterrupted power to the AP consumers.