Patiala: Five thermal units remained shut in Punjab on Monday, forcing the state to rely on costlier grid and private power and impose cuts of about four-and-a-half hours in industrial areas, including Ludhiana, Khanna, Mohali and Mandi Gobindgarh.Punjab’s peak demand reached 15,725 MW at 3 pm, against 15,688 MW the previous day and 9,121 MW on the corresponding day last year, according to Punjab State Power Corporation Limited (PSPCL) data. Officials attributed the increase to prolonged dry spells, which led farmers to operate tubewells longer for paddy irrigation, and rising summer cooling loads.Punjab State Power Corporation Limited drew 10,825 MW from northern grid against its scheduled quota of 10,666 MW, an overdraw of nearly 160 MW on Monday around 3 pm.Gross in-state generation stood at 4,902 MW. Two major independent power producers supplied 2,888 MW, while state thermal plants generated 817 MW, hydel plants 721 MW and solar facilities 393 MW.Three units at Guru Hargobind Thermal Plant, Lehra Mohabbat, went offline on Aug 4, 5 and 17 and are not expected to return before Sept 10. Officials blamed the outages to technical snags, including coal mill malfunctions and low coal bunker levels.At Guru Gobind Singh Super Thermal Plant, Ropar, a unit that tripped on Aug 8 is also not expected to resume generation before Sept 10. Another unit, shut since Aug 30 and scheduled to restart by Aug 31, remained offline on Monday evening. A unit that went down on Aug 28 was restored on Monday. PSPCL cited flame failure and non-availability of coal mills for the Ropar outages.Coal reserves on Sunday varied across plants. Lehra Mohabbat had stocks for 15 days, Ropar for 29 days and Guru Amar Das Thermal Plant, Goindwal Sahib, for 12 days. Among private producers, Nabha Power Limited, Rajpura, had 10 days’ stock, while Talwandi Sabo Power Limited had seven days’ stock.Meanwhile, Sanjeev Kohli, a union leader representing outsourced workers at Lehra Mohabbat, alleged state govt had not formally notified regular contract terms for outsourced employees despite earlier assurances. He said workers had continued their agitation for 33 days after their July 30 deadline expired.Contractual and outsourced workers at Ropar and Lehra Mohabbat ended a weeks-long strike in early July after commitments frm state govt, power minister and PSPCL leadership to address their demands.PSPCL director (generation) Punnerdeep Singh could not be contacted for comment.