category Regional, chandigarh, , tags Regional, chandigarh, , DW BUREAU Chandigarh Presenting an account of the performance of the Power Department during the year 2023, Punjab Power Minister Harbhajan Singh ETO on Sunday said that the department successfully faced many challenges besides setting new records during this year while providing free power to more than 90 percent of the domestic consumers by providing the facility of free electricity of 600 units bimonthly or 300 units monthly, besides providing free power to the 100 percent of the tube wells for agriculture in the state. Disclosing this in a press statement issued here, the Power Minister said that with the efforts of Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann led Punjab Government the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) witnessed a profit of Rs 564.75 crore from April 1, 2023 to September 30, 2023. He said that the PSPCL has successfully managed to overcome the challenges in operationalizing the Pachhwara Central Coal Mine, which was closed for past 7 years, and the dispatch of low-cost coal from this mine as compared to the costly imported coal to PSPCL thermal power stations was started in December 2022. He said that about 30 Lac Metric Tonne coal has been supplied to PSPCL thermal power stations till now. He said sufficient coal stock for about 30 days is available at Ropar and Lehra Mohabbat plants. He further added that about 20 percent more power has been generated by the state government thermal plants this year. He said that earlier the practice of short-term power purchase agreements was followed which resulted into purchase of expensive power in the hour of need. He said that now the PSPCL has been planning well in advance to make power purchase arrangements at competitive prices. He said that the Punjab PSPCL has been awarded by the Union Power Ministry as the top performing company among power distribution companies (Discoms) across the country for energy conservation measures under the PAT (Performance, Achievement and Business) programme. He said that during the PAT Cycle II, 80,686 Energy Saving Certificates were issued to PSPCL. He said that the value of each energy saving certificate is worth about Rs 1840, thus the total cost of these amounts to Rs 14.84 crore.Power Minister Harbhajan Singh ETO said that the highest ever demand of 15,293 MW of power was met on June 23 this year, which was 7 percent higher than the highest demand of 14,311 MW of met on June 29, 2022. He said that apart from this, a day s record energy demand of 3427 lakh units was met on September 9 this year, while in year 2022 the record energy demand of 3345 lakh units was met on June 29. (editor dailyworld.in)