Punjab Power Utility's IT Modernization Hits Rs 200 Crore Cash Flow Snag
The Punjab State Power Corporation Limited, already grappling with financial constraints, has encountered a significant disruption in its cash flow, amounting to nearly Rs 200 crore. This financial setback stems from delays in issuing electricity bills during the utility's critical transition from its legacy SAP system to a new, cloud-based billing platform provided by Oracle.
Transition Challenges and Consumer Woes
The migration, intended to modernize PSPCL's IT infrastructure and enhance revenue management, proved arduous for both staff and consumers. Across multiple districts, electricity users reported substantial delays in receiving their bills, unusually high charges, incorrect arrears, and difficulties in processing digital payments. Industrial consumers, particularly medium and large-scale units in areas where the new system was activated, were among the most severely impacted, leading to a temporary but notable dent in revenue collections.
In January alone, the cash flow disruption reached approximately Rs 200 crore, highlighting the scale of the operational hiccups. The phased migration saw the South Zone, covering Patiala, Barnala, Sangrur, Malerkotla, Mohali, and Ropar, shift about 16.1 lakh consumers to the new system on January 23. Following this, the West Zone, including Bathinda and Ferozepur, went live for 26.7 lakh consumers on February 6. The Central and North Zones were scheduled to complete the migration of over 50 lakh consumers by March 8, while the Border Zone, encompassing Amritsar and Tarn Taran, had an earlier go-live date of January 6 for 14.2 lakh consumers.
System Halt and Ground-Level Fallout
With the decommissioning of the SAP system on December 27, 2025, and the Oracle rollout finalized around late January, bill generation in several regions came to a standstill for more than a month. This interruption also affected the generation of meter change orders, delaying the replacement of faulty meters and the installation of bidirectional solar meters.
The practical consequences were evident on the ground, with sub-divisions in cities like Ludhiana and Patiala witnessing long queues of residents seeking manual corrections to their bills. Numerous households complained of bills significantly higher than usual, while others reported not receiving any bills since November, raising concerns about accumulating dues and potential penalties.
Official Response and Recovery Efforts
Chief Engineer IT Sukhwinder Singh clarified that there were no technical glitches in the Oracle software. He attributed the problems to officials not being fully accustomed to the new system, expressing confidence that adaptation would occur within days and issues would be resolved within a 15-day timeframe. Singh also cited a strike by meter readers, noting that newly appointed staff, though handling the work, lacked experience, which further slowed bill generation.
Singh confirmed that around 22 lakh smart meters have been installed across Punjab to date. While acknowledging the Rs 200 crore cash flow impact in January, he stated that the amount had been recovered during the first two weeks of February. He emphasized that consumers were billed accurately for their actual consumption days and not charged inflated amounts.
The matter gained attention at a recent Board of Directors meeting, prompting PSPCL to initiate extensive training programs for technical staff. These efforts aim to stabilize the new system, streamline operations, and restore consumer confidence in the utility's billing processes.
