New Delhi: The Centre has disputed reports linking Punjab’s power crisis to inadequate coal supplies, saying deliveries to two major private power plants have exceeded their consumption and pointing to unlifted stocks at Punjab State Power Corporation Ltd’s (PSPCL) captive mine.
In a statement on Sunday, the Coal Ministry said adequate coal had been made available to the state’s power plants. It urged Punjab to improve utilisation of PSPCL’s own plants, monitor breakdowns at independent power producers (IPPs) and lift coal already offered by Coal India Ltd’s (CIL) subsidiaries.
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The clarification followed media reports of power cuts lasting up to 14 hours affecting factories and farms. Those reports attributed reduced generation at Punjab’s thermal plants to outages and inadequate coal supplies.
The ministry said the reports did not present the complete picture, adding that the Centre had facilitated coal movement from PSPCL’s captive mines to Punjab’s IPPs since production began.
According to the ministry, Nabha Power Ltd’s Rajpura plant received an average of around five coal rakes a day over the preceding three days, against consumption of about 4.3 rakes a day.
Talwandi Sabo Power Ltd also received around five rakes a day during the period, compared with consumption of about 3.8 rakes a day.
For September 2026 so far, supplies averaged around 4.9 rakes a day to Nabha Power and 4.1 rakes to Talwandi Sabo, exceeding both plants’ average consumption, the ministry said.
Coal piles up at PSPCL’s captive mine
The ministry also flagged a gap between production and dispatches at PSPCL’s Pachhwara Central mine. Between April 2026 and September 11, production reached 83.67 percent of the annual target, while dispatches stood at 68.44 percent of the target.
It said around 3.21 lakh tonnes of coal had accumulated at the mine and urged the state to evacuate the stock to support higher generation at PSPCL’s own plants.
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“Higher utilisation of PSPCL’s own plants, monitoring breakdowns at IPPs, together with timely lifting of coal already offered by CIL subsidiaries, would help optimise power generation and address the state’s requirements,” the ministry said.
It added that CIL remained committed to uninterrupted fuel supplies for power generation across the country, including Punjab.
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