Punjab’s ongoing power crisis is severely affecting the industrial sector, with Jalandhar among the areas witnessing major disruption, as around 3,000 factories in the city’s industrial sector are reportedly facing the impact of prolonged power restrictions, with production being affected and businesses reporting losses.
The crisis intensified after Punjab’s electricity demand reached 16,619 MW on Friday, while power generation was around 4,472 MW by 5 PM. With the gap between demand and supply widening, restrictions have been imposed on industrial consumers, including night-time power cuts from 8 PM to 6 AM.
In Jalandhar, industrialists say the situation is now directly affecting their daily operations. Prominent industrialist Sagar Walia said industries were forced to shut their operations at around 3 PM due to the power shortage, and according to Walia, the early closure is having a serious financial impact on industries. While production comes to a halt because of the power cuts, companies still have to bear their regular expenses, including employee wages.
He said industries are required to pay workers their full wages even though the number of working hours and production have been reduced and this is adding to the losses being faced by businesses already struggling with the disruption.
The problem is not limited to Jalandhar, as in Ludhiana, more than 2,400 industrial units have reportedly been affected. Around 400 of these operate night shifts and employ more than 1 lakh workers.
The power shortage has been linked to technical problems at multiple thermal power plants.
One unit each at NPL Nabha, Talwandi Sabo and Ropar has been affected, resulting in around 1,570 MW of generation capacity being unavailable.
Officials have cited coal shortages, weak monsoon conditions and higher-than-normal electricity demand among the reasons behind the present situation.
Powercom Director Inderpal Singh said efforts are underway to restore the affected generating units. Departmental sources have indicated that the restrictions may continue for the next three days.
For Jalandhar’s industrial sector, the continuation of these restrictions could further affect production and increase financial losses and industrial units are facing a situation where electricity shortages are reducing their working hours while wages and other operational costs continue.
