Relief for PSPCL as power demand dips by 5,000 MW

The power demand in Punjab has dipped by 5,000 megawatts (MW), giving much-needed relief to the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL). The demand was over 15,500 MW for a few days but it dipped below 10,500 MW following widespread rains in the state. A senior PSPCL official said all thermal units in the state as well as the private sector were running at half load due to the low demand.

Until recently, the searing heatwave and paddy transplantation had pushed the state’s peak power demand beyond its maximum supply capacity of 16,000 MW. Last month, the demand had touched the highest-ever figure of 16,083 MW.

A senior official said, “A unit of the Ropar thermal plant was shut due to no demand on Saturday morning. Another Ropar unit was shut down yesterday due to lesser demand. Only two of the four units of the Ranjit Sagar hydropower project were running on Saturday.”

A PSPCL official said, “We expect the demand to remain around 10,000 MW in the next few days. The demand will go up gradually after the rain spell is over. By then, paddy transplantation will mostly be near completion. The PSPCL supplied 2,604 lakh units and 3,085 lakh units of electricity on Thursday and Friday, respectively, as per the Northern Regional Load Dispatch Centre’s website.

In June, the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) had also authorised the PSPCL to impose rotational power cuts, but with riders. Due to the heatwave and low rain in June, the power demand had increased around 5 per cent as compared to the corresponding month of last year. The average daily supply had also increased by around 24 per cent against the last year’s supply of 2,352 lakh units per day.

The state government supplies free power to the farmers and domestic consumers in the state. This year, the state witnessed 30% higher power demand as compared to the last year.