SHILLONG, April 19: The Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) is losing Rs 3 for every unit purchased to address the shortfall in power availability in the state.
The purchase of power at Rs 8 per unit is, however, unlikely to provide respite to the people in Meghalaya anytime soon.
Sanjay Goyal, the managing director of MeECL told reporters on Wednesday that the state is receiving about 170 MW of power against a demand of roughly 250 MW. The state gets power from its own gencos (generating companies) and generating units in the central sector.
Blaming the current dry spell for impacting the generating units in Meghalaya, he said the Myntdu-Leshka Hydro Electric Project (MLHEP) is not functioning due to the shortage of water while Umiam is getting shallower fast as the government is using its water to compensate for the loss from MLHEP.
Admitting that this is a tough time for the state, he said the situation would improve with more power expected from other sources and rainfall predicted.
The MeECL is purchasing power at Rs 8 per unit but supplying it to the consumers at a lesser rate. This has made the corporation lose about Rs 3 per unit, Goyal said.
Asked if the state’s generating units such as Myntdu-Leshka, Umiam and Umtrew have failed to bail out Meghalaya from the power crisis, he said only Umiam is a reservoir while the others are run-of-the-river projects.
“The government uses the water from the Umiam project during lean periods,” he said.
He also said the government is exploring the possibility of developing some hydro and thermal projects in the state. The detailed project report of Stage 2 of MLHEP is in an advanced stage and efforts would be made to seek funds for the 210 MW unit, he added.
The government is also hoping to develop four-five small hydro projects that can generate about 5-10 MW of power, Goyal said.
On the brighter side, a unit of the Ganol hydropower project is in the stage of synchronisation with the grid. All its units are expected to start producing power by June 30.
