Chandigarh/Mohali, Feb 10: Power engineers have called on the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited to rethink its latest financial filing, cautioning that the revised figures could lead to significant economic uncertainty for the state’s energy sector.
The Punjab State Electricity Board (PSEB) Engineers Association issued the warning following the corporation’s decision to submit a revised Aggregate Revenue Requirement (ARR). The association noted that the new projections, which sharply reduce distribution loss targets, are technically impractical and could result in major future losses.
In a formal communication to the Chairman-cum-Managing Director, the association directly said that the move “risks pushing the Punjab power sector into a state of long-term financial uncertainty.”
The dispute centers on a memo filed on February 4, which lowered the projected distribution loss target to 10 per cent for the 2026-27 fiscal year. This is a steep decline from the original 12.75 per cent estimate proposed just months earlier. The engineers mentioned that such an abrupt reduction of 2.75 per cent in a single year lacks historical precedent and fails to align with current field conditions.
The association noted that the revised targets appear to be an attempt to artificially suppress revenue requirements by projecting a reduction in power purchase costs exceeding 5,200 crore over three years. Experts argued that achieving these goals would require massive infrastructure investment which has not been accounted for in the current business plan.
“It is neither realistic nor technically feasible to achieve a distribution loss reduction of 2.75 per cent in one year under existing field conditions,” the letter stated. The engineers further mentioned that the current approach merely defers the financial burden, which will eventually lead to higher, unpredictable tariffs for consumers and a distorted financial position for the utility.
