PSPCL chairman A Venu Prasad told The Indian Express Tuesday that adequate arrangements had been made by the corporation to procure and supply eight hours power to the agriculture sector.
THE PUNJAB State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) is expecting a bumper power demand of nearly 12,000 MW from the agriculture sector ahead of the paddy sowing season in mid-June.
PSPCL chairman A Venu Prasad told The Indian Express Tuesday that adequate arrangements had been made by the corporation to procure and supply eight hours power to the agriculture sector. “Last year, we supplied 11681 MW power during the paddy sowing season and we do not foresee any problem in meeting an excess of that demand,” said Prasad.
He dispelled rumours that there would be a shortage of power due to the closure of two units each of the thermal plants at Bathinda and Ropar. “We have bought 200 MW from Power Trading Corporation (PTC) at Rs 3.50 paise per unit which is a very good price. If you see the rate of purchase today, for example, it stands at an average of Rs 6.58 per unit this month and as we speak it is more than Rs 9 per unit,” he said.
Prasad said that the fixed cost/capacity charges paid against power surrendered to National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and private thermal plants has been reduced to a large extent. “The amount has come down from Rs 1,342 crore in 2015-16 and Rs 1,249 crore in 2016-17 to Rs 820 crore in 2017-18. This has been achieved through banking and bilateral arrangements with Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh,” he said.
The sale of surplus power by PSPCL in open market through Indian energy exchange has also considerably increased as compared to previous year, said Venu Prasad. He said the sale has gone up by around four times and stands at Rs 445.50 crores for 2017-18 as compared to Rs 107.54 cores in 2016-17, he said.
When asked about the high rates of negotiations of Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) in the previous government, the chairman said new agreements at lower tariff have been signed by PSPCL with Damodar Valley Corporation, JP Karcham, Wind Power-1 and Windpower-2 (both from Solar Energy Corporation of India Ltd). ‘These are at much competitive rates than earlier ranging from Rs 2.52 per unit to Rs 3.17 per unit. The agreement with DVC and JP Karcham is for Rs 200 MW each while it is for 150 MW for Windpower-1 and Rs 200 MW for Windpower-2,” he said.
Venu Prasad said the task of installing meters on tubewells was only a ‘study’ as of now. “The project has physically not yet started on ground and the villages where the pilot project would take lace fall in Fatehgarh Sahib, Jalandhar and Hoshiarpur districts,” he said. Commenting on the complaints of urban consumers on fequent power breakdowns, he said, “ I have 91 lakh customers. If some damage takes place due to a truck banging into an electricity transformer or a breakdown due to weather conditions like duststorm, then these are taken care of as soon as possible,” he said.
Source: indianexpress
