Punjab heading towards major power outrage as coal runs out

Punjab on Tuesday braced for massive power cuts after running completely out of power, with coal stocks in the state drying up fully as a result of the prolonged suspension of goods supply trains by the Railways.

As day-time power shortage rose to 1,000-1,500 MW, with the last of the state's power plants, GVK Thermal, also running out of power, the Power Department has been left with no option but to impose power cuts on all residential, commercial and agricultural consumers beginning Tuesday evening.

According to a government spokesperson, at present, the day demand in the state stands at about 5,100-5,200 MW and the night demand is about 3,400 MW.

Supply, on the other hand, is totally inadequate with only agricultural power load of vegetable feeders (800 MW) being given supply for four-five hours during day time every day.

The situation, said the spokesperson, was grim as PSPCL was left with no generation control and market rates of power continued to be highly volatile and could further spike any time, resulting in increase in the cost of power purchase, on which the state is now completely dependent to feed its cables.

Due to the increase in market rates leading to lesser clearance of day-ahead power, load shedding had to be carried out on Tuesday.

Giving details, the spokesperson said the situation worsened when the one unit of GVK (2×270 MW) that was operational at around 12 noon headed for shut-down by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, when the coal stock was slated to completely run out.

Other private thermal power plants i.e. NPL (2×660 MW) and TSPL (3×660 MW) have already exhausted their coal supplies and are out of operation.

The state's own thermal power stations of Ropar and Lehra Mohabbat are also boxed up at present. However, one unit at each of these plants shall be synchronised by this evening to make up for GVK generation loss and to provide stability to the system, said the spokesperson..