Patiala, Nov 13: Smog is not only giving health problems to residents in the state, it has also become a cause of concern for the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) as it is frequently disrupting power transmission too.
Malwa is the worst hit in this regard as power lines in the region tripped seven times in the past five days due to smog. The tripping of lines resulted into shutdown of the 1800 MW Talwandi Sabo power plant twice, forcing the corporation to impose power cuts causing inconvenience to consumers.
The Talwandi Sabo plant tripped on Sunday as well and it was not reported functional till filing of this report.
After having supplied fairly good power during the peak demand of 11,000 MW to 12,000 MW in summer/paddy season, the PSPCL is finding it hard to supply uninterrupted power now when the demand has dived down to almost one third (4,000 MW). This is due to the repeated trippings of high-voltage transmission lines, particularly 400 KV lines emanating from private thermal plants at Talwandi Sabo, during the past one week.
Meanwhile, the state-run thermal plants at Ropar, Lehra and Bathinda are shut down due to less demand. The 50% of the present power demand, over 2,000 MW, is met by the supply from the Talwandi plant (1,400 MW to 1,600 MW) and the Rajpura plant (660 MW).
There are a total of six lines of 400 KV emanating from the Talwandi plant — two each to Muktsar and Dhuri, one each to Nakodar and Moga.
While the 400 KV Talwandi-Muktsar line got tripped at 4.40 am on November 6, the other five lines tripped one after another on November 7 from midnight onwards.
This resulted in tripping of all the three units of Talwandi plant, which was supplying about 1,100 MW power at that time. The plant took a lot of time to restart generation of power, creating a blackout situation in several areas of Malwa on November 8.
News Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com
