DW BUREAU / PATIALA PSEB Engineers Association in a letter to the Punjab Chief Minister has suggested various ways and means to improve the efficiency and health of the Punjab power sector. Ajay Pal Singh Atwal, General Secretary of the Association, said that they always suggested to the governments of the day to have the right mix of private generation and public sector generation. Now to provide reliable, quality, and cheap power to people, there is an urgent need to revisit the power purchase agreements with all private generators. These private generators did not maintain the mandatory requirement of coal stock and failed to provide power during the peak demand months. The Association has urged that proactive steps to operationalize the Pachwara coal mine should be taken to reduce the cost of coal. Punjab has a number of power theft-prone pockets and to reduce transmission and distribution losses there is a need to focus on how to control power theft. Atwal further said that this year Punjab could not import the power to meet its demands due to limits imposed by NRLDC and the measures suggested to increase the limit are to complete the process of ICT installation and up-gradation and augmentation of the conductor. This work must be completed before the onset of the next paddy season. Other suggestions include setting up of solar plant at the land of Bathinda thermal, technical chairman of the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) and Punjab State Transmission Corporation Limited (PSTCL), the merger of PSPCL and PSTCL, and flattening the load curve by incentivizing consumers to use power at off-peak hours. (editor@dailyworld.in)