SHILLONG, Dec 19: In a major relief for the state, the NEEPCO and NERLDC on Saturday evening withdrew the power regulation for Meghalaya after the power generation PSU agreed to Meghalaya Government’s ‘request’ to restore supply of power.
Confirming this, CMD of Meghalaya Energy Corporation Ltd (MeECL) , Arunkumar Kembhavi said that NEEPCO and NERLDC withdrew the regulation w.e.f 16:30 on Saturday.
NEEPCO had stopped supplying power to Meghalaya from midnight after MeECL failed to clear outstanding dues and also failed to guarantee payment security.
Meghalaya Energy Corporation Ltd (MeECL) has to clear Rs 690 crore outstanding payments to NEEPCO.
Earlier in a letter to NEEPCO, the CMD, MeECL requested the PSU to refer to MeECL’s sincere efforts to ensure payment of their dues through daily advance payments till now in spite of severe cash constraints.
“It has even resulted in long delays in payment of salaries for our employees. Due to various systemic legacy issues in achieving an acceptable level of collection from our consumers, the fund position has reached a critical stage,” he said
He said that as a short-term measure, the MeECL have approached PFC and REC to disburse the amount sanctioned under the ‘Atmanirbhar Scheme’ to mitigate the current crisis and while they are hopeful of a favourable outcome, it may take a few days to actually receive the amount from PFC/REC.
It was also informed that the loan agreement and the quad-partite agreement between the PFC, REC, State Government and MePDCL have been signed
earlier this month and they have sent advice lists to REC/PFC, adding that REC/PFC are in the process of releasing Rs 180 crore immediately to NEEPCO in the first instance.
Asking NEEPCO to reconsider their decision to regulate supply of power , the MeECL CMD also informed the PSU about the news from OTPC as unit 2 will go under forced emergency shutdown due to boiler tube leakage from 7 pm Saturday
“Tentative shutdown period will be 72 hours. With this there will be a shortfall of another 34 MW. The daily requirement of Meghalaya during this time is 6MU. With the shutdown of one unit of OTPC (0.5MU), regulation of NEEPCO (1 MU) and net bilateral STOA (1MU), we will be forced to resort to load shedding for 12-15 hours per day,” he lamented.
The CMD also said that as the state is approaching the festive season of Christmas and also New Year’s eve which is an important part of the lives of many people in the region even as he added that any disruption in uninterrupted supply of power shall result in public grievance and may be seen as a coercive step taken by NEEPCO to cause prejudice to the celebrations for the consumers of Meghalaya.
The MeECL CMD also said that the Corporation will make all attempts to restore the payments as well as a Payment Security Mechanism at the earliest.
Meanwhile, the CMD while reacting to reports that Meghalaya will face load shedding due to breakdown of block 2 of Palatana Power project as the state was receiving 34 MW from this sources, said that the MeECL have already arranged the replacement from other sources.
“ There is nothing to worry; there will be no load shedding and we will honour our promise of providing uninterrupted power supply during the festive and winter season,” he said. It may be recalled that long power cuts and load shedding was quite common in Meghalaya during the winter but now MeECL is keen to ensure that the trend is reversed and people enjoy uninterrupted power supply.
