PSEB engineers for war against electricity theft
Attar Singh
Tribune News Service

Patiala, June 28
The Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) Engineers’ Association has urged Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to control demand by curbing wasteful use of electricity for which the state government has to show its zero tolerance towards power theft. Various studies have shown that demand on the system can be reduced up to 30 per cent by curbing power theft.

In a letter to the Chief Minister, the association has pointed out that influential consumers indulge in power theft by intimidating the staff and officers of the PSEB. Any resistance by an officer to tackle this menace results in harassment by way of transfers or thrashing in full public view.

The association has urged the state government to re-consider its policy for adding new generation capacity in the state and hand over the construction of Rajpura plant to PSEB immediately. At the same time it has suggested declaring a war against power theft and curb wasteful utilisation of energy by adopting conservation measures.

The body has also pointed out Punjab has been facing acute power shortage and unprecedented power cuts mainly due to delay in the monsoon. However, the demand-supply gap in the last 10 years has increased manifold due to non-addition of adequate generation capacity in the state and the network has become over-loaded due to lack of investment in the transmission and distribution sectors. The public resentment against power shortages has now turned into anger leading to law and order problems for the state.

The association said: “If immediate corrective steps were not taken, we may see power riots in the coming years since even after arrival of monsoon, the state may not enjoy cut free luxury on sustained basis.”

The association has alleged that the situation has become grim due to lopsided policies of the successive state governments. The previous government ignored capacity addition and depended on costly power purchase to mitigate power shortage. With peak power shortage touching 38 per cent, the present state government has placed top priority to capacity addition with identification of three new thermal plants of 5,940 MW capacity and revival of the Goindwal Sahib Project.

It has warned that the power supply position in the state is going to worsen in the coming years as not even a single MW of new generating capacity is expected to be added in the state. The work at 1980 MW Talwandi Sabo thermal plant awarded to Vedanta group in August 2008 is yet to start with the group demanding various concessions. This project is not likely to come up in the next four years.