In order to meet the power shortage in paddy season, the Punjab State Electricity Board(PSEB) has initiated process for procuring electricity. The board has earmarked Rs 1,100 crore for power purchase during the current paddy season(commences from June 10-October 10, 2010). The board has plans to procure 25,000 lakh units of power from different players in the upcoming season to meet the shortfall.
It is worth mentioning that the state has more than 1.2 million tubewell connections and mainly the farmers rely on electricity and diesel for irrigation. Further, overall, the state has over 6.6 million electricity consumers including domestic, industrial and commercial consumers. The Board official also informed that the peak demand during the paddy season hovered around 8,400-8,600 Mw and the availability of power during the season was 5,200 Mw, so there was a huge shortfall. To meet the demand, the state mainly procures electricity from the power producers besides relying on banking system.
Speaking to Business Standard, one of the sources in PSEB said, “We have plans to procure 25,000 lakh units during the paddy season. In this regard, we have initiated the process and issued letter of intent(LoI) to the power producers. Already the rates has been negotiated with the power sellers and we are ready to buy the power at the rate of Rs 5.60 per unit.”
As majority of the power players has their units located outside Punjab, the board has also moved application to power grid corporation for permission of transmission of power, as during the same time the other state governments like Haryana and Himachal Pradesh would be using power grid infrastructure for transmission of electricity.
He further informed that the Board would all impose 4 hour cut for the customers across all categories during the ongoing season to ensure non-stop supply to the farmers.
It is worth mentioning that power is free in Punjab for farmers and SC/ non-scheduled customers living below poverty line up to certain units. So the government used to compensate the PSEB directly. But this year, in order to streamline and rationalise the farm subsidies, the government introduced productivity bonus through a system of reimbursement of the power bills directly to the farmers (instead of compensating the state electricity board). The government has earmarked Rs 3,120 crore for power subsidy which includes agriculture consumers and scheduled castes consumers and non-scheduled cast below poverty line domestic consumers with connected load upto 1,000 watts.
According to the officials of PSEB, Punjab has an installed capacity of 6,841 Mw. Also, the state has highest per capita consumption of power in the country at 972 units, as compared to national average of 700 units and the situation further aggravates during the summers. Furthermore, the power shortage in the state is growing at the rate of 10 per cent per annum.