SHILLONG, April 22: As the state reels under the discomfort of load-shedding, respite is nowhere near in sight as the government has made it clear that the load-shedding will not end soon.
Deputy Chief Minister Prestone Tynsong on Saturday said that some temporary measures are however in the pipeline to provide relief to the public from the ongoing load-shedding which has lasted for a month now.
“This crisis will be there,” Tynsong told media persons here, while informing them that Chief Minister Conrad Sangma had recently held a meeting with the officials of the Power department to introduce some temporary measures.
He termed situation as difficult and unfortunate, while explaining that two-three units of NEEPCO have not been functioning for a month now which is causing this disruption of power supply.
The state’s crippled power sector is likely to trouble citizens with the ongoing load-shedding till the advent of the monsoon as many of the state generating units remain non-functional at present due to the dry spell.
The Managing Director of MeECL, Sanjay Goyal had recently expressed hope that the power scenario would improve shortly even though the state is witnessing eight to nine hours of load-shedding currently.
It may be mentioned that the 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 anytime soon.
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.
Goyal, had recently stated 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 had 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.
