Punjab leads the country in matter of power purchase, Rs.6500 crore spent this year
July 29, 2012 05:20 PM
By Vinod Gupta
CHANDIGARH: Punjab, the most aggressive power purchaser, leads all the states of country in matter of power purchase. A whopping Rs.6500 crore billed this year.

Punjab State Power Corporation ltd. (PSPCL) had claimed at the start of this financial year that there will be no power cuts because of power shortage as they have made elaborate arrangements for the summer by purchasing over 2000 MW power. Factors like breakdown or load can affect the supply, not shortage as PSPCL is purchasing Rs 6,500- crore worth of power this fiscal.

Punjab had been making power purchases through 8 traders and major traders are Power trading Corporation ( about 25.5 %) ,Adani and Adani Power (About 11.6 % ).The additional power is being arranged from 11 generating stations.

The assessment of PSPCL went haywire when the power demand rose beyond their expectations and to make the power situation worse monsoon was delayed and then prediction of poor monsoon. Punjab has been making short term purchase to bridge the gap between demand and supply. Even in the last 10 days the average daily power purchase is 580 lac units. This included power purchase through traders, under banking arrangements directly or through traders and from power exchanges.

Under banking arrangement PSPCL purchased directly about 96.6 lac units daily and about 54 lac units through traders. Power purchase through traders was about 344 lac units daily and varied between 303 to 365 lac units. The power purchase from power exchanges varied between 25 to 169 lac units with the average of 76 lac units. The total short term purchase in last 10 days varied from 501 to 677 lac units. The average power purchase cost in last 10 days works out to Rs. 5.20 per unit. The unit price varied between Rs.3.62 to Rs.6.34 depending upon power demand and availability.

Punjab had been making power purchases through 8 traders and major traders are Power trading Corporation ( about 25.5 %) ,Adani and Adani Power (About 11.6 % ).The additional power is being arranged from 11 generating stations.

PSPCL had signed short-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) with different firms to supply eight-hour power to agricultural pump sets during the paddy season this year. The total power to be purchased for the paddy season would be around 3,200 million units (MUs) at Rs. 4 per unit. PSPCL in its tariff petition before regulatory commission has projected that power purchase worth Rs. 7207 crore would be purchased in 2012-13.