PATIALA: PSEB Engineers Association in its representation to Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) has asserted that Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) regulations defined the useful life of the coal-based thermal station as 25 years, but there is a provision that operation beyond 25 years would be decided by the commission on the case to case basis.
The most important parameter is “unit cumulative running hours” from the date of commercial operation.
The power engineers revealed that Ropar thermal units have run for only 1.5 to 1.7 Lac hours each, as against three lakh hours each by NTPC Singrauli units in Uttar Pradesh. Similarly, for Lehra Mohabbat power plant, the running hours of thermal units are about 1.1 Lakh hours.
Padamjit Singh, Patron Punjab State Electricity Board Engineers’ Association (PSEBEA) said that it is in the public interest to obtain the required benefit from the investment and equipment to the tune of three lakh hours running.
“The gross generation of government-run Ropar and Lehra Mohabbat Thermal Station was at plant load factor (PLF) of 14.26% and 11.33% respectively. Thermal units at Lehra Mohabbat power plant had run just one-third of its total hours capacity. The CERC has clearly defined the useful life of thermal plants”, said, Padamjit Singh.
Notably, last year, group of experts led by Montek Singh Ahluwalia has called for the shutting down of two thermal plants in Punjab in its initial report. The report suggested that to reduce the average cost of power to the PSPCL should shut down two thermal plants at Ropar and Lehra Mohabbat that produce power at a much higher cost than alternatives available to the power utility. Two units of Ropar thermal plant have already been closed and the remaining four units have outlived their life span of 25 years.