PATIALA: The sweltering heat sweeping across Punjab along with paddy load has pushed the state’s power demand to an unprecedented high. On Tuesday , Punjab's electricity demand soared to a record-breaking 16, 249 megawatt (MW), surpassing the previous year’s peak of 16089 MW recorded on June 29. This spike, driven by relentless heat and the paddy sowing season, has put immense pressure on the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL).
The load graph at the SLDC website of PSTCL does not show beyond 16000 MW and needs to be updated, informed V K Gupta retired PSPCL engineer.
However, if the current weather pattern persists, the maximum power demand in Punjab could potentially exceed 17000 MW in the coming days. PSPCL claims it is prepared to take additional measures, including importing more power and optimizing local generation, to meet this anticipated demand.
The drawing limit from the northern grid is 10400 MW and its own maximum power availability may be around 6500 MW under ideal conditions.
Today all the thermal units are running in the state. In the state sector Ropar thermal is generating 680 MW, Lwhra Mohabbat 830 MW and Goindwal 505 MW. In the private sector Rajpura thermal is generating 1325 MW and Talwandi Sabo 1860 MW. All the hydro units including three units of Ranjit Sagar are operating in the afternoon.
On Monday PSPCL supplied 3295 lakh units with maximum demand of around 15640 MW.