Rain leads to dip in demand for power
Varinder Singh
Tribune News Service

Patiala, July 11
In what may come as a respite, dreaded long and unannounced power cuts eluded residents of most of the areas of Punjab after a long time as the state received moderate rainfall in certain areas, leading to a dip in demand for power even as there was a huge gap of 230 lakh units between demand and supply of electricity in the state.

It is a different matter that the beleaguered Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) has not announced any drop in power cuts “officially”, as the board authorities apprehend a sudden surge in power demand once again, in case it doesn’t rain in the next two to three days.

What came as a pleasant surprise for residents of the state was the fact that tyrannical 12-13-hour long power cuts almost eluded most of them on Friday for the first time after about a long gap of about 25 to 30 days, owing to showers lashing certain areas on Thursday morning and evening.

Rising mercury and absence of rain had made the state register highest power demand during the past fortnight at 1,992 lakh units (LUs) on Tuesday when the supply hoverered around just 1,597 LUsb - a whopping gap of about 400 LUs.

Sources in the PSEB said currently if the demand was around 1,750 LUs, the supply of power was 1580 LUs- the most comfortable position witnessed by the board during past one month when it had to face wrath of “power starved” people of the state in shape of “dharnas” and protests at different places.

This has made the board to “lift” power cuts in most of areas, though, not officially. “We are awaiting the situation to get stabilised. Everything depends upon quantum of rains. It may turn out to be a temporary relief.

If there are no rains in next two-three days, we will have to bear with cuts once again,” said a board official. Interestingly, the board chairman had claimed earlier in winters that the state residents would not be made to bear power cuts this time.

On the other hand, the PSEB, which had to increase and allow the usage of power up to 50 per cent of the sanctioned load for the industry following sharp criticism of the board by industrialists, today further tried to placate the industry sector by increasing the level of permitted usage to 75 per cent of the sanctioned load.

Despite rains in certain parts of the north, the water situation was still grim in the reservoirs. The Bhakra reservoir was going with a water level of 1,532 feet as compared to 1,619 feet during the corresponding period of the last year.

Dehar was having a level of 2,930 feet as compared to 2,924 feet during last year. Similarly, if Pong had 1,331 feet of water during last year, now, it has just 1,273 feet and the Ranjit Sagar Dam was having a level of 400 metres as compared to 513 metres during last year.