The Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Limited (HPSEBL) will not be in a position to maintain previous levels of power supply to Punjab and Haryana under the power banking system which stands substantially curtailed.
Official sources have told The Tribune that the board has significantly less power for banking arrangements this year. As against around 1,800 million units it used to bank in previous years, the board is planning to store only around 400 million units this time.
The reduction in the quantum of power for banking arrangement is likely to have an adverse impact on neighbouring Punjab and Haryana — two major players in the power banking arrangement with Himachal Pradesh.
These states may now have to look for other options, including banking arrangements with other states or buying power from the open market, to meet their electricity requirements.
HPSEBL’s quantum of electricity for banking arrangement has fallen substantially as the state government has taken away around 2,000 million units of equity power from the board. Earlier, the board provided surplus summer power to states like Punjab, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Delhi and others under a banking arrangement, retrieving the same amount during winters when demand increased and hydropower production declined.
The Himachal Government is however now selling electricity in the open market through the Himachal Pradesh Energy Management Centre in the Directorate of Energy. The previous supply of 1,800 million units of power to the board is no longer the norm.
“We used to bank around 1,800 million units when the equity power was with us,” an official said. The board has now sent a proposal for banking 400 million units to the regulator. “We may ‘bank’ more electricity if there’s surplus power available,” an official source added.
Currently, the electricity demand in the state is around 375 lakh units per day. The generation has increased to around 440 lakh units a day due to the increase in the discharge following the rise in temperatures. “We have around 60-65 lakh units surplus per day which is sold in the real time market,” said the official.
