SHILLONG: Former State Power Minister Conrad K Sangma has raised the issue of Meghalaya’s power crisis with Union Minister of State in charge of Power, Piyush Goyal.
“The poor power scenario in the State has affected not only the domestic consumers but also government offices, hospitals, industries, institutions (including educational) and business houses which has affected the overall economic scenario of the State,” Sangma said in a representation to Goyal following their formal meeting in New Delhi on Thursday.
People have suffered 9 to 11 hours of load shedding in several parts of the State during the dry season this year, Sangma told the MoS, adding that in Garo Hills region the power supply is so erratic that at times people are without power for days.
He lamented that the only business that has seen considerable growth in the State is the inverter, UPS and generator sector.
On his part, the Union Minister of State suggested the need to invest in short and medium term renewable sources of energy, since the bigger power projects, be it hydel or thermal, will take time to develop.
“Be it solar or wind or biogas, power plants for these forms of energy could be set up faster compared to other forms. For a start, all government offices and educational institutes could set up solar panels to harness the power of the sun. Further these offices and institutions could be put on a net metering system where power could be put back into the grid when there is no need for it or when there is excess production,” Goyal said.
The Minister stated that this will not only add much-needed power to the grid as offices and institutes are mostly closed on weekends and most institutes have summer or winter break, but will also give them financial benefit as they will be paid back for the power they put into the grid.
“This model could be adopted for any organization or individual who wishes to invest in such a system. At the same time wind mapping in different parts of the State could be undertaken which would allow us to know the potential that the State has in term of wind energy generation,” Goyal said.
Sangma took up the issue of shortage of qualified manpower in MeECL offices, which is another reason for the inefficient functioning of the Corporation.
“Some districts in Garo Hills till dates do not have sufficient manpower because of which the services are not provided properly and maintenance of the lines also suffers,” Sangma said.
He also claimed that MeECL, which had been corporatized and the different divisions segregated as per the guidelines of Government of India, has not been completely segregated till date.
Stressing on the need to strengthen the transmission lines, Sangma said at present most of the load centers are connected through long drawn 33 KV lines which are leading to heavy losses and not efficiently transmitting power. If these could be replaced with high tension lines, the overall efficiency of the system would improve, he suggested.
Sangma recalled that Meghalaya at one point in time was a power surplus State, but in recent times it has become power deficient and is not able to meet even 50 per cent of its unrestricted demand.
“The production of power is from two main hydro sources (Umiam, 186 MW approx.) and Myntdu-Leshka (126 MW approx.), which together have a generation capacity of approximately 311 MW only, whereas the unrestricted demand of power in the State is over 670 MW. There is one mini project at Sonapani producing 1.5 MW. Two more projects at New Umtru (40 MW approx.) and at Ganol (22.5 MW approx.) have also been allotted to the State agency but the work in those fronts are moving at a snail’s pace,” Sangma said while also claiming that several power projects – both hydel and thermal – have been sanctioned but none of the projects have taken off as yet and are being delayed for a number of reasons.