Punjab (The Stellar News) Saksham Kalia: Punjab witnessed higher consumption of electricity in the month of January this year. Punjab power consumption minister Harbhajan Singh has said in a statement that compared to January 2022, the monthly power consumption in the state has gone up by 12 percent. The minister added that Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) met the demand successfully by optimum utilization of the resources. As per reports, 54, 237 million units were consumed in January 2022 which rose to 60, 762 units million units this year.
The rise in consumption can be attributed to two reasons. First, there was an intense cold wave and second, the government of Punjab under the Aam Aadmi Party is providing 600 units of free electricity in a billing cycle.
Amid the Punjab government policy of providing 300 units free electricity per month to the Punjab beneficiaries and added the burden of Rs 7000 crore on PSPCL. For that PSPCL is taking loans on higher interests.
PSPCL met the requirement by arranging electricity from outside the state. Punjab’s thermal and hydropower generation capacity was also increased. Notably, the thermal power generation from PSPCL-owned plants in Lehra and Ropar was increased by 128 per cent. These two units produced 2,736 million units in January 2022. However, in January 2023 the power general was clocked at 6,229 million units.
Similarly, the power generation in hydro projects owned by PSPCL and BBMB increased by 21 per cent and 13 per cent respectively. In PSPCL-owned hydropower units, the power generation was upped from 2,946 million units to 3,567 million units. In BBMB, it increased from 3,067 million units to 3,454 million units.
There has been a sharp increase in the banking of power with other states. As per reports, compared to 1,917 million units in January 2022, 3,487 million units of electricity were consumed that were banked from other states.
