When Union Power Minister Raj Kumar Singh attacked the Punjab Government yesterday, saying the state had not enhanced its transmission capacity for many years, he was not off the mark. As the enhancement of transmission capacity takes several years, Punjab has not been able to keep pace with the rising demand in the peak season.
Though many in the power sector blame successive governments of deliberately going slow on the enhancement of transmission capacity in order to keep under control the free power given to farmers and other socio-economically vulnerable sections, the cash crunch with the state power utilities is also a major factor responsible for this slow transmission capacity enhancement.
Punjab has a transmission capacity of 6,400 MW for quite a few years now. The states capacity in 2011-12 was 4,700 MW, which means it has gone up by 1,700 MW in the past 10 years. On the other hand, as Punjabs peak demand went up to over 15,000 MW this year, the power availability in the state, including its own generation and through short-term and long-term agreements, could not exceed 13,300 MW, resulting in a gap of 1,700 MW.