PSEB TOPS STATES IN PURCHASING POWER WOR

Lily

B.R
Staff member
PSEB TOPS STATES IN PURCHASING POWER WORTH RS 6,000 CR

Chandigarh August 11:
The Punjab Government may well get yet another extension for disbanding the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) up to the end of the current financial year, but the fiscal health of the board is deteriorating due to big-ticket purchase of power worth Rs 6,000 crore from private agencies and other States to meet the demand at home.
The deadline for disbanding the PSEB expires on August 31,2008, but the State Government hopes it would be extended up to March 31, 2009, as has been done in case of the neighbouring Himachal Pardesh where the deadline for trifurcating the HPSEB expired on July 31, 2008. Under the Electricity Act, all power boards in the States are to be trifurcated into three separate companies responsible for generation, distribution and transmission.
It is learnt that any decision on disbanding the remaining eight power boards in the country, including Punjab, would be taken after the Lok Sabha elections early next year. In fact, the PSEB has earned the dubious distinction of making record purchases of costly power. Its power purchase has increased three to four times since 2004-05. The PSEB purchased power worth Rs 6,000 crore in 2007-08 against Rs 2,230 crore in 2004-05. And the bill is mounting by the year due to severe shortage of electricity.
The Punjab Government has already appointed a consultant to sort out the financial problems of the PSEB due to mounting debts and other liabilities running into Rs 20,000 crore. The debts are mainly on account of the freebies granted by the Punjab Government to certain sections of the society, mainly the agriculture sector, which consumes power worth over Rs 600 crore every year.
Costly power purchases are due to the ill-advised policy of bureaucrats who preferred going in for power purchase, instead of adding to the generation capacity of the State. Successive Governments have ignored professional advice of power engineers 'to add at least 500 MW generation annually'. The bureaucrats had reportedly advised that 'it shall be cheaper to buy power from the national grid than to generate it in Punjab'.
A senior PSEB officer told The Pioneer that although the plan to add about 9,500 MW of generation capacity in Punjab is late by a decade, yet it would be a welcome step. This addition includes 6,480 MW through coal-based thermal plants in the private sector. The proposed thermal plants are to be constructed at Talwandi Sabo (1,980 MW), Rajpura (1,320 MW), Gidderbaha (2,640 MW), and Goindwal Sahib (540 MW).
The State Government also plans to execute 500 MW extension projects, one each in Bathinda and Lehra Mohabbat, departmentally. Besides, the proposed addition of thermal generation 165 MW hydro-project at Shahpur Kandi is also to be completed in the next five-year plan. The completion of Shahpur Kandi hydro project will result in full utilisation of the Ranjit Sagar dam project.
About 90 per cent capacity addition would be in the private sector and it means lot of uncertainties, especially in view of the experience with GVK for the Goindwal Sahib project. Even at the national level, over dependence on the private sector resulted in achievement of only 53.77%, 47.25% and 57.52% of capacity addition targets fixed for the 8th 9th & 10th Plans, respectively. From 1992 to 2007, a span of 15 years, the private sector added 8,433 MW of power against the total capacity addition of 58,618 MW power in the country, sources said.
The PSEB Engineers association has suggested that Punjab should go in for a joint venture with the NTPC in 80:20 ratios, ensuring commissioning of the Giddarwaha project within the next 48 months. If Punjab can spend Rs 6,000 crore on power purchases in a year, it can easily contribute Rs 660 crore annually to this joint venture project. This will ensure timely supply of power in the State.
The Punjab Government has been ignoring the use of nuclear energy on the plea that it is costlier. The construction period for a nuclear power plant is 7 years and the cost is about Rs 10 crore per mega watt against Rs 4 crore per mega watt, in the case of a coal-based thermal plant. The engineers association has suggested that Punjab should opt for at least 1000 MW nuclear plant each in the next two five-years plans with the help of the Nuclear Power Corporation.
 
Top