From April to January 2023 power demand rises by 12% from last year: Harbhajan Singh
Necessary arrangements are being made on war footing for Summer & Paddy season
Punjabenews: Power Minister Punjab Sh. Harbhajan Singh in a press release informed that during this year Punjab State Power Corporation Limited has successfully met the increased power demand in the state through optimum utilization of its resources. He further said that from April to January 2023, demand in the state has risen by 12% from last year (i.e 60,762 MUs vs 54,237 MUs.). To achieve this, apart from making power arrangements from outside the state, PSPCL has also increased its own thermal and Hydel generation. Notably, during the year Thermal Generation from PSPCL Own thermal plants at Ropar & Lehra has increased by 128% from last year (6,229 MUs vs 2,736 MUs). Similarly, Hydro Generation from PSPCL own projects and BBMB has also increased by 21% (3,567 MUs vs 2,946 MUs) & 13% (3,454 MUs vs 3,067 MUs) respectively from last year.
Apart from an increase in its own generation, banking of Power with other states has also increased significantly. PSPCL has increased its Banking Export by 83% (3,487 MUs vs 1,917 MUs) due to which in return, Power availability to PSPCL under banking also increased by 152% from last year ( 5,945 MUs vs 2,361MUs).
He further said due to increase in availability of power from internal resources and banking, PSPCL was able to reduce its Short Term and costly Power Purchase through Exchanges by 39% (5,935 MUs vs 9,741 MUs). Not only this, PSPCL has also sold more surplus power in exchange that is 8 times more in comparison to the last year (368 MUs vs 46 MUs).
At the end he said that PSPCL is committed to provide regular and uninterrupted power supply to its esteemed consumers during the upcoming Paddy & Summer Season and necessary arrangements in this regard are being made by the State Government and PSPCL & PSTCL on war footing.