The power crisis in Punjab has deepened as five of the 15 thermal stations have stopped generation, leading to a shortfall of 2,010 Mega Watts (MW) of electricity. As a result, the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited is resorting to unscheduled power cuts, especially in rural areas.
Of the five thermal plants, three are private and two are State-owned.
They all have a generation capacity of around 6,000 MW. one 660 MW unit of the Talwandi Sabo power plant halted generation due to leakage in its boiler. Another unit of 210 MW has gone out of operation at the Ropar plant.
The 270 MW unit (Unit-1) at Govindwal is already shut down since April 11 due to a coal shortage.
Details of coal stock available at various thermal plants:
- GVK power plant at Goindwal Sahib has coal left for only three days.
- Talwandi Sabo has coal stocks for only six days.
- Rajpura plant has coal for 19 days.
- Lehra Mohabbat has coal for just five days.
- Ropar Plant has coal for eight days.
Due to this acute coal shortage, in Patiala 2-3 hours, in Garhshankar nearly 6 hours, in Ludhiana 2-3 hours and in Muktsar around 4 hours of power cuts are taking place.
All sections of office-goers, traders, and industrialists feel that their routine life gets upset with power cuts. This has caused worry among the residents of the state.