Punjab meets a record 17,423 MW of demand without imposing cuts
The peak beats July by 146 MW. September demand is running 26% above last year, and all ten state thermal units are at full capacity — days after Amritsar industry lost power for fourteen hours.
Punjab met a peak electricity demand of 17,423 MW without imposing cuts for shortage, the state's power minister said, a record for the state and 146 MW above the previous high.
The earlier peak of 17,277 MW was set in July.
What the minister said
Tarunpreet Singh Sond, Punjab's power minister, dated the period of uninterrupted supply precisely.
"From 7 AM yesterday, 13 September, until now, no power cuts due to electricity shortage have been imposed in Punjab," he said.
He said supply had been maintained across residential, commercial, industrial and agricultural categories, and that farmers were receiving two additional hours of electricity a day as compensation for disruptions earlier in the paddy season.
The demand numbers
The scale of the increase is the substance of the claim.
September demand reached 16,598 MW by 13 September, against 13,127 MW in the corresponding period last year — a rise of 26%.
Consumption over the longer run has grown more modestly but from a much larger base. Between the start of April and 13 September, Punjab consumed 46,696 million units against 41,072 million units in the same period of 2025, an increase of 14%.
Peak demand has therefore risen faster than total consumption.
What is generating it
All ten of the state's thermal units are running at full capacity. A further 100 MW was recently brought online from a private power plant, and two private thermal plants were repaired after technical failures.
That last detail is the link back to the fortnight Punjab has just had.
The context the record arrives in
The announcement comes days after the state's industry was doing without.
On 12 and 13 September, industrial areas in Amritsar lost power for close to fourteen hours, from the afternoon until six the following morning, across Bal Kalan, Focal Point and other industrial zones. The cut came days after the Punjab State Power Corporation Limited had assured industrialists on 8 September that unscheduled cuts would be discontinued.
So the record and the Amritsar cut belong to the same week. Neither outlet sets out how the two relate.
What a record peak does and does not prove
Meeting 17,423 MW without load shedding is a real measure of generation and procurement, and it is the number the government has chosen to lead with.
It is not, by itself, a measure of reliability across the season. A grid that meets its highest peak on one day and cuts industrial supply for fourteen hours on another has demonstrated capacity at the top and fragility in the middle, and industrial users in Amritsar complained not only of lost production but of damaged equipment and of being notified ten minutes after the supply had already gone.
The two extra hours now being given to farmers are described by the minister as making up for supply they did not get during the paddy season.
The wider picture
Punjab's position is better than several neighbours'. Kerala is running a deficit of 700 to 900 MW and imposing evening restrictions, and has received a 150 MW allocation from the central quota. The Grid Controller of India has reported a national deficit of around 12,000 MW.
Against that, meeting a record peak without cutting anyone is a substantive claim. It was made, though, at the end of a week in which the same utility had cut a city's industry for most of a day.
Sources
- Rozana Spokesman — Peak 17,423 MW against a previous 17,277 MW in July, up 146 MW; September demand 16,598 MW to 13 Sep against 13,127 MW in 2025, up 26%; consumption 46,696 MU against 41,072 MU, up 14%; Sond quoted; ten thermal units at full capacity; 100 MW from a private plant; two extra hours for farmers.
- DNP India — Own reporting. Same demand and consumption figures; Sond quoted on no shortage cuts since 7am on 13 September and on two extra hours for farmers; two private thermal plants repaired after technical failures.
