After a collapse of the northern grid hit power supply, Haryana power utilities restored power generation at four units of the Panipat Thermal Plant power plant, and it is expected the remaining ones would start generating power soon. Talking to Business Standard, a senior official at the Haryana Vidyut Prasaran Nigam Limited said hydel- and gas-based power generation could be resumed quickly, but the coal-fired power plants would take time to restart, as these needed to be lighted up and synchronised to restore power generation.
The state draws about 8,00,000 units from the northern power grid a day. In Punjab, too, generation at thermal power plants was being restored. Speaking to Business Standard, Punjab State Power Corporation Director (distribution) Arun Kumar Verma said, “The Ropar Thermal plant (1,260 Mw) consists of six units of 210 Mw each.”
Two units have been synchronized, while two have been lighted up and would be synchronised soon. The remaining two units would be synchoronised subsequently. In the Lehra Mohabbat plant (920 Mw) two units of 210 Mw have been lighted up and would be sysnchornised soon. Efforts are on two synchronise the Bathinda thermal plant.”
Industry in Punjab were not affected due to Northern grid failure which led to disruption of Power in several states namely Delhi, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jammu & Kasmir. As, last month, Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd(PSPCL), instructed Industry in the state two observe two day weekly off i.e on Sunday and Monday to meet power shortage. So the demand from the industry was nil. However, the residential areas were severely affected to Power failure. The main casualty of the power failure was the water distribution.
The industry in Haryana however was not much effected as most of the units have sufficient power backup.Ramesh Verma, the President of Panipat Handloom Exporters Association, told Business Standard that the power supply from state utilities was erratic and inadequate so grid failure does not effect them much.
The industrialists at Gurgaon also echoed the same sentiments. "We have genetrators to cop up with such situation as power supply in Haryana is not regular", told an industrialist on the condition of anonymity.
According to one of the senior official in PSPCL, Punjab is authorized to draw 2100 lakh units daily from the Northern Grid and is drawing within permissible limits. He added, ‘ We are very disciplined state and is drawing within permissible limits." He mentioned that the state is facing a shortfall of 200-300 lakh units daily.
It is worth noting that the state has three thermal plants and the total thermal generation Installed capacity is 2620 MW. Speaking to Business Standard, PSPCL, Director-Distribution, Arun Kumar Verma said, "The Ropar Thermal plant(1260 MW) consists of 6 units of 210 MW each. Two unit have been synchronised and two have been lighted up which would be synchronised in an hours time. Subsequently remaing two units will be synchoronised. As far Lehra Mohabbbat(920 MW) is concerned, two units of 2 X 210 have been lighted up and will be sysnchornised in an hours time. Similarly, efforts are on two synchronise Bathinda thermal plant.'
It is worth mentioning that the whole of North India plunged into darkness as the power supply in several states severely affected after failure of northern electricity transmission grid at about 2:30 am. The Northern Grid, one of the largest in the country, covers nine states -- Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, J&K and Chandigarh.
