Augment power distribution system: Experts
Umesh Dewan/TNS

Patiala, July 9
With power crisis in the state coming to an end, apart from sudden spurt in the power demand, there were frequent breakdowns in the transmission and distribution network in the past two weeks.

Information gathered by The Tribune has brought to light that besides the 66-KV grid, 132-KV and 220-KV transmission stations and sub-stations, even the distribution network, including the transformers, are overloaded and responsible for the power failure due to frequent breakdowns.

Experts in the power sector stated that rain in the state had ended the power crisis but there was a need for the two power utilities - Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) and Punjab State Transmission Corporation Limited (PSTCL) - to take up the augmentation of the transmission and the distribution system on priority. Notably, grid sub-stations with 66-KV and below come under the PSPCL, while the 220-KV and 132-KV transmission and sub-transmission stations come under the jurisdiction of the PSTCL.

Sources in the Power Corporation said there could be different reasons for the breakdowns but primarily, overloading of transmission stations and transformers were the main reasons behind the power failure. “Technical snag in the 100-MVA transformer in Barnala, problem in the 100-MVA transformer at the 220-KV Ferozepur Road sub-station and snags in the transformers of several district of the state during the recent past are enough to gauge that the transmission and distribution system needs to be streamlined,” said the sources.

Notably, these are not the only cases, the Power Corporation has placed a list of as many as four dozen overloaded sub-stations of various capacities on its website. Even the PSPCL management had admitted that out of the 573 sub-stations providing power supply to the agricultural pumpset (AP) tubewells, as many as 122 were overloaded, because of which AP consumers being fed from overloaded sub-stations were getting only six-hour power supply and not the eight-hour supply, as assured by the PSPCL.

Speaking to TNS, power sector expert Padamjit Singh said with new thermal plants likely to come up in the state, there was a need to lay emphasis on the augmentation of the transmission and distribution system so that the additional capacity could be supplied to the consumers without technical snags and breakdowns. “The augmentation of transmission and distribution is required to unload the overloaded sub-stations”, he added.

PSPCL officials were busy in a meeting, some officers, unwilling to be quoted, said the augmentation of the transmission and distribution network was a continuous process and the Power Corporation had done a lot to strengthen the transmission and distribution network in the past few years.