Punjab power demand declines by 7,550 MW after heavy rain

The power demand in Punjab saw a considerable decline on Wednesday following heavy rainfall across the state. It came down to more than half of the daily requirement these days, with the demand declining by 7,550 MW on July 5.

While on Tuesday (July 4) the maximum power demand reached 14,350 MW with a supply of 3,098 lakh units, on Wednesday it dipped to 6,800 MW, according to spokesperson for All India Power Engineers’ Federation V K Gupta.
This substantial decrease in power demand brought relief to the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited, thanks to heavy rain across the state.

Currently, all four units at Ropar thermal power plant and three out of four thermal units at Lehra Mohabbat are operating at half load. Similarly, both units of Rajpura thermal power plant, as well as one unit each at Talwandi Sabo and GVK plant are also operating at half load. At present, two units at Talwandi Sabo and one unit at GVK plant are non-operational due to technical breakdown, said V K Gupta.

The coal stock at Lehra Mohabbat and Ropar thermal power plants can last for 24 and 42 days, respectively. In the private sector thermal plants, Rajpura has 35 days’ worth of coal stock, while Talwandi Sabo has six days and GVK has only four days of coal stock, said V K Gupta.

The state’s own power generation was approximately 3,000 MW on Wednesday. During the day even the state was under-drawing power at around 3,100 MW for some time from the central pool, while the drawl schedule was set at around 7,800 MW, said V K Gupta. Consequently, all the running hydro units at the Ranjit Sagar Dam Project were stopped.

The water levels in the reservoirs of the hydro plants are in a better position compared to the levels on the same day last year. The water level in the Bhakra reservoir currently stands at 1,599.3 feet, which is 41 feet higher than last year’s level of 1,558.6 feet. Similarly, the water level at Ranjit Sagar is currently at 512.37 meters, which is over 8.5 meters higher than last year’s level of 503.74 meters.

According to officials at PSPCL, not only has the power demand in agriculture decreased due to heavy rain, but also domestic power demands have come down with the non-operation of air conditioning units.