Challenges aplenty for Sidhu as power minister

Saturday, 08/06/2019

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CHANDIGARH: Challenges are aplenty for Navjot Singh Sidhu, who in the Thursday reshuffle of the Punjab cabinet was handed the portfolio of power and new and renewable energy sources while being divested of the local bodies department.

It is anybody’s guess as to what role the minister is left with when two autonomous bodies — Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) and Punjab State Transmission Corporation Limited (PSTCL) — look after the entire operation of distribution, generation and transmission of power in the state, under the watchful eye of Punjab State Electricity Regulatory Commission (PSERC) that monitors their functioning, particularly deciding the tariffs annually.

Sidhu, so far, has not taken charge of the new ministry assigned to him, and top officials of the power department are waiting for a word from him.

Meanwhile, the presence of PSEB engineers association, an authoritative body of engineers that is critical of the dispensation, may make it tough for Sidhu to prove his credentials as an administrator.

“In a tightly organised and highly technical system, Sidhu has to push his way into the system. What goes in his favour is honesty,” said a veteran engineer of the erstwhile Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB), out of which PSPCL and PSTCL were carved out in the nationwide unbundling of power utilities in 2003.

THE MINISTER’S ROLE Sidhu will be leading around 44,000 employees and engineers of the two corporations with a collective annual revenue of ₹32,757 crore and assets of ₹52,000 crore, and having major spending of ₹20, 834 crore on the purchase of power every year.

As a minister, he can use his good offices in getting the PSPCL’s dues cleared from the state government. These comprise ₹14,972 crore of subsidy for free power to agriculture tubewells and other consumer sections — ₹9,675 crore for the current year and ₹5,297 crore as arrears of previous years.

The minister can also contribute in building the state’s quota of power generation from nonconventional sources, reducing burden on the coal-fed thermal generating units.

The minister in-charge has a key role in optimum use of coal from the PSPCL mine at Pachhwara and bringing the efficiency of state-owned thermal plants on a par with the privately run. “The old thermal plants at Ropar and Lehra Mohabbat can have modern super critical systems, and the minister’s role is very important,” said a retired engineer of the erstwhile PSEB, who added that men, machinery and land of the closed thermal plant at Bathinda can be utilised to run a renewable energy plant using solar cells or paddy straw.