Power situation in Punjab is likely to remain grim until July 31, due to deficient rainfall in the southern & western states, said YS Ratra, chairman of the Punjab State Electricty Board .

Insufficient rain fall in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka & Kerala (southern & western regions of national power grid) has lead to power shortage in these states.

As water level in hydel reservoirs has fallen to the lowest levels, these states have backed out of the earlier agreement to bank power with Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB).

Ratra, informed many states with which PSEB had entered into firm contracts for supply of power during paddy season have withdrawn the power unilaterally under Force Majeure clause of the contract. Thus the availability of power to PSEB has reduced by 600 mw per day. . Heavy power cuts are being imposed to meet the gap between demand and supply

Power shortage is also forcing all the states to overdraw from the grid which is resulting in very low frequency in the grid system, severely restricting PSEB’s overdrawal from the grid. PSEB could only draw 70 mw from the national grid on July 23 against 420 mw on same day last year, he added.

Ratra further informed that in addition to above, the generation in the northern region has also reduced due to continued outage of one 500 mw unit of Singraouli Power Plant (UP) since June 23 and one 210 mw unit of Unchahar Power Plant (UP) since July 20.

Further due to partial availability of liquid fuel at Dadri Power Plant (UP), its generators are not operating at full capacity. The loss of PSEB share is 70mw. BBMB is still to resume full release of water from Pong dam. They are only releasing 5000 cusecs of water against the capacity of 12000cusecs of Mukerian project thereby affecting the generation at MHP. The generation loss to PSEB is to the tune of 150mw from both these projects.

However if the rains improve in the southern & western region, the position will become comfortable during August. Presently, PSEB has been forced to impose cuts as per real time availability of power.