CHANDIGARH: With the start of paddy season today maximum power demand recorded in Punjab was 11175 MW , an increase of more than 1900 MW from Wednesday demand of 9234 MW. At the time of maximum power the state wes overdrawing 224 MW from the grid. Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd. (PSPCL) is all set to maintain 8 hour power supply to tube wells.
last year on Day 1 of paddy sowing season, power demands in Punjab increased by 1363 MW and touched f 10184 MW over the previous day demand of 8621 MW.
With the start of paddy season state sector thermal plants at Lehra Mohabatt and Ropar have started generation to meet the power requirements during paddy season. Today two thermal units at Ropar and one thermal unit at Lehra Mohabatt are supplying power and these units were lighted up yesterday afternoon. A senior RTP official informed that in the afternoon other two units have also been lighted up to meet the increase in power demand.Similarly second unit at Lehra Mohabatt has also started generation in afternoon.
On Wednesday before the start of paddy season, the power supply in the Punjab was 1855 lakh units with thermal units supplying 556 lakh units. The private sector Rajpura thermal supplied 233 lakh units and Talwandi Sabo supplied 244 lakh units.
The maximum demand expected this year is expected to touch 14000 MW and PSPCL is likely to l meet the challenge as it has made arrangements for this. Last year maximum demand during this season was 12638 MW.
The states thermal generation capacity including private sector is 6110 MW , share in central sector projects is 4580 MW, installed hydro capacity 1161 MW and solar capacity of 859 MW. Besides this it has share in BBMB power houses and has also made arrangements for power supply under banking arrangements from different states.
As per daily report, the coal stock at Ropar thermal and Lehra Mohabatt thermal is 48 and 32 days respectively which is more than expected storage of 21 days before the onset of monsoon.