Arunachal facing huge power shortage, says minister

Itanagar:  Arunachal Pradesh is facing a power deficit of 156 million units a year against annual power demand of 793 MU, the state assembly was informed on Friday.
Responding to a written question raised by BJP member Kento Rina, Power Minister Tanga Byaling said that the production of power both by state and the central utilities was primarily based on hydro power plants.
“During winter season, the state experienced power shortfall of 12 to 30 MU,” he said.
“The department as per Central Electricity Regulatory Commission’s stringent grid discipline code has to resort to regular load shedding across the state,” he said.
For bridging the annual energy gap of 156 MU, the government had to purchase power from open market and CERC licensed power traders.
“Unless some big storage dams come up, power shortfall in the entire north eastern grid is likely to continue,” he said.
He said the department of hydro power had taken up construction of new small hydel projects and also reviewing low efficient and defunct mini and micro hydel projects through its renovation and modernization schemes with the support of the union ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE).
“The MNRE has agreed in principal to support 27 such projects and in the first phase sanctioned 18 schemes,” he said.
“The remaining projects will be sanctioned by the ministry on completion of the first phase,” he said.
To another question, Byaling attributed the reasons for repeated power failure in the state to disruption of transmission lines and natural calamities besides absence of a reliable state grid at 132 KV voltage level.
He said, transmission lines which passed through hilly terrain and thick forests got damaged due to natural calamities.
Maintenance of cent per cent fault free supply was an uphill task.
However, all faults were being restored at the quickest possible time depending on nature of damage and engineering requirements, he said.
“There is a need to develop a reliable state grid and the state government is taking up with the Centre for a comprehensive scheme,” the minister said. (PTI)