State stares at power shortfall

Yogindra mohan
Patiala

Punjab may face shortfall in power generation in the coming days due the decision of engineers of three thermal plants of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) to adopt“work-to-rule” strategy from Monday against the decision of the PSPCL management to give a meagre hike of “generation incentive” to employees and engineers ignoring the recommendations of the committee constituted by PSPCL for this purpose.

Stating this here on Sunday, Bhupinder Singh, general secretary of the PSEB Engineers’ Association, said that during ‘’work to rule’’ engineers will operate any equipment for which they are not specifically trained as per law and no equipment including generators shall be operated beyond rated capacity. Engineers warned that responsibility of Generation Loss due to ‘Work to Rule’ agitation, would rest with the management of the company which is following the policy of “Penny Wise Pound Foolish”. Although as per the policy of Punjab Government, all allowances have been doubled but the committee, keeping all aspects in view, recommended a nominal increase of about 35-40 per cent in generation incentive and further agreed to a 10 per cent cut in the generation incentive to continue as an austerity measure. However the engineers were shocked to learn that PSPCL management in its meeting held on 11th Nov. decided to allow increase of just 15-20 per cent, playing a cruel joke on the thermal engineers. PSEB (now PSPCL) has won many awards due to excellent performance of its thermal plants and as per the data released recently by central government, the plant load factor (PLF) of PSPCL plants is one of the best in the country.

Thermal performance has won many laurels from not only central agencies but also from the State Regulatory Commission. Generation incentive is the biggest single motivating factor for engineers and staff who perform arduous and risky nature of duties despite acute shortage of manpower and logistics. The PSEB Engineers’ Association has appealed the CM Parkash Singh Badal to intervene and direct PSPCL management not to create industrial unrest in power companies.