Unbundling: PSEB engineers to protest
Tribune News Service

Patiala, September 6
The executive committee of the PSEB Engineers’ Association in an emergency meeting held here today decided to launch protest by holding a march here on September 10 against move of the state government to unbundle Punjab State Electricity Board in a “hush-hush” manner.

It was further decided that in case any unilateral action is taken by the state government to unbundle the PSEB, engineers would be forced to resort to direct action, including total strike.

The association regretted that despite assurances by the Chief Minister to engineers during its general-body meeting and subsequent meetings that no step in this direction would be taken without consulting engineers, the power secretariat in the state government has been working overtime to force failed model of other states on Punjab. “It is ironical that even the technical members of the board are not being consulted and all proposals are being discussed and finalised by a team of bureaucrats. It is beyond comprehension, how the state will ensure smooth transition without involving the board management or the engineers, who are and will be responsible for running the sector,” the engineers said.

Engineers are neither against fulfilling the requirements of the Electricity Act, 2003, nor against introduction of real reforms in the sector, but are determined to oppose any move to segregate the functions of generation, transmission and distribution in the name of reforms, since it has not been mandated under the law.

The stand of the association has been vindicated by the latest judgment of the Appellate Tribunal of Electricity, which has held that it is not mandatory to unbundle the state electricity boards as per the Electricity Act, 2003.

Firstly, the political leadership of the state had been misled that its mandatory to unbundle the PSEB as per the provisions of the Act and now, it is being propagated that state would get huge Central funds if the PSEB is unbundled, which has been totally baseless and misleading.

They added that the PSEB has been already getting funds under both these schemes as per their requirement and entitlement. For generating plants, Power Finance Corporation, has been requesting the board and the state government to set up plant under state sector, for which they have been ready to finance, but the state government has been running after private players for setting up the plants without any success. The association cautioned the political leadership against misleading propaganda of the vested interests.

In a scenario of power shortage, the major objective has been the optimum utilisation of available power-generation capacity. Since, power generated cannot be stored, it is necessary to match the power generation with consumption and demand on minute to minute basis, with the transmission system acting as the carrier.

This matching of generation with demand could be better achieved only through a vertically integrated structure covering generation, transmission and distribution. Private companies have been operating in an integrated mode and if private companies can generate, transmit and distribute the power in its area of operation, then why state electricity board should not be permitted the benefit of the integrated operations.

The main reason for the failure of power sector reforms process in the country is that it has been conceived, drafted and managed primarily by consultants or bureaucrats and the power engineers had been kept out of the process. Any transition from one structure to other has to be well conceived, planned and well debated by involving all the stakeholders particularly those who are supposed to carry forward the change.