Scheduled powercuts in the city have been increased to five and a half hours a day. The number of hours is likely to go up in the coming days as the Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) has not signed any fresh power agreement for December and January. During the paddy season too, the scheduled powercuts continued for six hours. The residents are irked that even when the winters are approaching, there is no relief from powercuts. The state’s demand of electricity is 950 lakh units (LUs) while the availability is only 800 lakh units.PSEB member distribution HS Brar said that this is the right time to save the government’s revenue as consumers can bear powercuts because of the fall in temperature. At the moment, PSEB is purchasing around 250LUs of electricity which is being returned to the neighbouring states because they had given power to Punjab during the paddy season. The local PSEB office has hinted that the maintenance exercise would start in the coming days to keep feeders ready for summers; hence powercuts would be extended further.
