PSPCL against cheap power to industries
Umesh Dewan/TNS

Patiala, June 27
Started two years back with a view to meet the power demand of large-scale industrial units in Punjab, the provision of drawing power through the Open Access is now causing immense financial loss to the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) annually.

Worried over the increasing trend among the industrial units to draw power through open access, top functionaries of the PSPCL are of the view that industry has made the open access system as a profit-making tool. Majority of the PSPCL officials feel that transmission charges being levied on the open-access consumers should be increased to save the corporation from incurring financial loss.

In wake of the fact that because of the cheaper power available through the open access presently, a considerable number of the LS power consumers are preferring to draw power through the open access instead of getting power from the PSPCL. Now, the PSPCL engineers have sent a letter to the Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) stating that the charges of just 25 paise per unit power being given by the open access consumers to the PSPCL for using the transmission system of the corporation was, too, less.

Notably, the open access system enables the consumer to purchase power from any source other than the PSPCL. The consumers in the state started opting for the open access from 2009-10. Presently about 270 consumers in the state have been granted the open access facility and these consumers are importing about 150 lakh units of power per day.

According to information, 42 per cent of the open access power was purchased at about Rs 2.5 per unit during the last three months, which is at least Rs 2 less than the power being provided by the PSPCL.

“This trend is not good and is causing monetary loss to the PSPCL. Hence, the charges of Rs 25 paise per unit should be increased to at least Rs 2 per unit,” said a senior official of the PSPCL.

Meanwhile, the letter sent to the PSERC by the PSEB Engineers’ Association reads, “In the fiscal 2011-12, open access consumers are expected to bring about 5,000 million units of power from sources other than the PSPCL. This will obviously reduce the power burden from the PSPCL, which in turn will put burden of Rs 1,000 crore on the corporation.”

Association president HS Bedi said they have urged the PSERC that while framing the new open-access regulations, the interest of the PSPCL and 70 lakh non-industrial consumers should be protected by increasing the per unit power charges being paid by the open-access consumers to the PSPCL.