PSEB imposes power cut

This had brought the entire system under tremendous strain as the maximum demand of power was registered at 8.70 lakh units on June 5. This demand was likely to go up to 900 lakh units.

These sources said important towns, including Amritsar, Patiala, Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Mohali had a cut of one and a half hours in two spells today.

The board is already getting five hundred mw power from hydel sources. Despite the acute power crisis, the board managed to supply three-phase supply to rural feeder for ten hours. This supply for ten hours daily started from June 6.

According to sources, to maintain the system the PSEB is getting about 50 lakh units daily from the Central sources.

In view of the severe heat wave conditions, the demand is likely to increase in the coming days and may surpass the last year’s peak load.The PSEB has already notified rotational off days for industrial units in the state. Every industrial city has been assigned a weekly off day when the units would remain shut.

Meanwhile, sources in the PSEB pointed out that the Bhakra Beas Management Board ( BBMB) was not cooperating fully with the PSEB to help it tide over the present crisis despite the fact that the water-level in the BBMB reservoirs was satisfactory.

A spokesman of PSEB engineers association said the BBMB was only a custodian board and the PSEB had a share of 40 per cent in the power generated there.