Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh on Mondayevening ordered the immediate withdrawal of all power regulatory restrictions thatwere imposed on industries across thestate to meet the power crisis.
The crisis was triggered by a delayed monsoon and the unprecedented surge in demand from both agricultural and domestic sectors.
Reviewing the power situation in the state after theresumption of generation at one of the three non-functional units at TalwandiSabo Thermal plant, the chief minister directed the Punjab State PowerCorporation Limited (PSPCL) to ease off all power regulatory restrictions onindustrial consumers across the state with immediate effect. The chief ministerwas informed that the plant at Talwandi Sabo had resumed 660 MW production,improving the power situation in the state.
The decision on the complete withdrawal of therestrictions were taken by the Chief Minister soon after PSPCL announced asimilar but partial withdrawal in districts falling in central and borderzones. The PSPCL had allowed all industries, except those using continuouspower, to operate at full capacity from today.
However, after the Chief Minister’s intervention, allindustries across the state, including those using continuous power round theclock (Textile, Chemicals, and Spinning Mills, etc), can now operate to fullcapacity.
It may be recalled that owing to an unprecedented rise inthe demand of power, the PSPCL had, as a temporary measure, ordered restrictions onIndustrial consumers of the State in order to provide continuous power supplyto Domestic consumers and 8 hours power supply to the Agriculture sector forpaddy operations. Continuous process industries were allowed to operate at 50%of their load, a spokesperson from the Chief Minister’s office said.
Significantly, despite the high demand for consumption,the PSPCL had not imposed any restrictions on small and medium supplyindustrial consumers, rice shellers, cattle feed units, call centers, mushroomfarms, food processing units, and other essential Industries/services from thebeginning, the spokesperson further revealed.
Punjab has 99,834 small power industrial consumersbesides 30,176 medium power consumers upon whom no usage restriction has beenlevied at all despite rising demand for power across the domestic sector. To meetup the shortage, only large supply consumers (5071 in number) which use 1000 KVASCD had been asked to use 100 KVA for 12 hours a day. Large supply arc furnacesof which 282 operate in the state, had been restricted to 5% of SCD only.
The spokesperson said that despite the failure of TSPLPlant, PSPCL had successfully met the highest ever energy demand of 3066 lakh unitson July 1. The day’s demand had surpassed the earlier record of 3018 lakh units of power supply in asingle day in the state.