By Our Reporter
Shillong: The State Chief Secretary WMS Pariat has blamed emergence of industries in the state for prevailing acute shortage of power.
“With population growth, the requirement for power energy is also increasing and the demand for power by industrial sector is also very huge,” Pariat said.
Pariat said this while addressing a workshop-cum-seminar on energy efficiency measures involving industries and stakeholders in the state, organized by the Meghalaya State Designated Agency on Energy Conservation (MSDAEC) here on Tuesday.
Pariat, who is also the chairman-cum managing director of Meghalaya Energy Corporation Ltd (MeECL), said the peak power requirement in the State is around 630MW.
“Out of the total requirement of 630MW, two-third (420MW) is being consumed by industries and only one-third is allotted to domestic consumers,” Pariat said adding that Meghalaya is also giving power industrial units at a subsidized rate.Stating that at present Meghalaya is purchasing power from outside, he said, “Our requirement for power in the next decade would be huge”.At present, Meghalaya is producing around 186MW besides 42MW being generated from the Myntdu-Leshka Hydel project in Jaintia Hills. The total power generated including those from central sectors is around 397MW. Representatives from various industrial units including cement factories attended the workshop.