Respite from power outage likely soon

SHILLONG, June 30: Power Minister Prestone Tynsong on Thursday said the problem of load-shedding in the state is likely to be solved within a week or two.
He said Meghalaya has a total shortage of 180 mega watts (MW) of power. Giving a break-up, he said the shortage from the state’s own units is 122 MW while it is about 46-50 MW from the North Eastern Electric Power Corporation Limited (NEEPCO). He said this shortage is the reason behind load-shedding.
“I assure that we will try to restore power as early as possible. We are in touch with the management of the NEEPCO to find out ways and means,” Tynsong told reporters.
He said the state’s units as well as two units of the NEEPCO have broken down. He said this made the NEEPCO to cut down its allotment to the state. He said load-shedding will continue as long as the problem is not fixed.
Tynsong said the duration of load-shedding will not increase. He said it will be minimised as much as possible with average load-shedding duration of two to three hours or at the most four hours depending on zone and sectors, already categorised and regionalised.
He said in case the duration has to be increased, it will not be done in one stretch. “We have calculated this based on the feedback received from those areas. We wanted to ensure that inconveniencies, as minimum as possible, are caused,” the minister said.
Stating that the state is experiencing difficulties as this is the wet season and that it sells power during monsoon but buys it during the dry season, he said, “It is a banking power system. Maybe, within one or two weeks’ time, we will be able to overcome the challenges.”