Regardless of contributing to greater than half of PSPCL’s whole industrial income within the state and repeated assurances of uninterrupted energy provide from the Punjab State Energy Company Restricted (PSPCL), a number of industrial pockets in Ludhiana, significantly point of interest division proceed to reel below frequent energy outages and voltage fluctuations, crippling operations and inflicting mounting losses.
On Thursday alone, round 4 11 KV feeders below the Focal Level division remained non-functional with no backup. (HT Picture)
Industrialists say they’re stricken by relentless feeder tripping, abrupt shutdowns, and back-to-back upkeep works that disrupt manufacturing schedules and harm costly equipment.
Notably, on Thursday alone, throughout the span of 4 hours from 6.06 am to 10.43 am, round 4 11 KV feeders catering to those industrial localities below the focus division remained non-functional with no energy backup, portray a grim image of poor electrical energy provide.
Tejveer Grewal, an area businessman in point of interest asserted, “Industries are already reeling under losses, but despite this, the corporation is charging us a whopping ₹110 to ₹350 per KVA as fixed charges in addition to tariffs, regardless of actual electricity usage.
These charges are meant to cover PSPCL’s costs for maintaining the infrastructure and ensuring the availability of power supply at all times. Yet, we are still struggling to maintain a steady flow of operations due to such outages.
Adding to the concerns are voltage fluctuations, which hurdles our equipment functioning and hampering their efficiency. He further added that PSPCL boosts its revenue surplus but still has surged power tariff for industries operating during night hours from ₹5.31 per kVAh to ₹5.50 per kVAh, while keeping all the others domestic and commercial charges unchanged. Even after charging us extensively, the power utility has failed to ensure something as basic as uninterrupted power supply,” Grewal famous.
Echoing an identical plight, Rahul Verma, an industrialist primarily based in Focal Level Section 5, famous that regardless of putting in a devoted hotline feeder that provides energy instantly from the grid substation, his models skilled over 55 outages in simply six months, some lasting so long as 9 and half hours. “This clearly exposes the poor infrastructure and substandard services of the power corporation,” he stated.
Verma additional identified, “ Along with these outages, we are troubled with the slow response from officials, who often take hours to resolve even minor faults. Also, despite paying hefty charges, we are forced to rely on backup diesel generators, which add significantly to our costs. Who will compensate for these extra expenses and operational losses?” he questioned.
Upkar Singh Ahuja, president of the Chamber of Industrial and Business Undertakings (CICU), attributed the continuing energy points to an absence of long-term planning by PSPCL, by stating, “The root cause of frequent outages is outdated infrastructure including loose wires, feeder trippings, and voltage fluctuations. The corporation must undertake advanced and comprehensive upgrades to create a sustainable environment for industrial operations.”
When contacted, Amrinder Singh, XEN point of interest asserted,” the ability outages are significantly prompted from ongoing upkeep works forward of monsoon. After receiving any complaints we rapidly reply to repair it.”