Punjab: Cash-strapped Powercom bearing double brunt of financial crunch, electricity crisis
PTC Web Desk: Cash-strapped Powercom is bearing the double brunt of financial crunch and electricity crisis. While one unit each of Ropar and Talwandi Sabo Power Thermal Plant have started functioning again, one unit of GVK thermal plant with a capacity of 270 MW was shut on Thursday.
At present, 2050 megawatts of electricity is being generated less due to the shutdown of production from five out of 15 units in Punjab. At the same time, to meet this shortfall, Powercom on Thursday bought 33 million units of electricity from open exchange at an average of Rs 8.99 paise for Rs 30.40 crore.
This is adding to the burden of cash-strapped Powercom as it is being forced to buy expensive electricity, but further giving at cheaper rates to consumers.
On February 16, the demand for electricity was 9,000 MW, which is 2,595 MW more than the last year. Till 5pm, 4023 MW of electricity was produced from the power plant, including from all sources. Coal stock is also not satisfactory even though the thermal plants of TSPL, Ropar, Lehra Mohabbat and GVK are generating less than half of electricity.
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As per experts, if these plants start running at full capacity, the coal stock would exhaust in three days.
Experts say daily shutdown of GVK and Talwandi Sabo Power Thermal Plant due to technical fault is a matter of concern. The government will have to review these thermal plants and take action. In the coming summer, the demand for electricity is expected to exceed 16000 MW.
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- PTC NEWS
