News that the Umiam Lake has dipped to its lowest ever and with the rains playing truant, Meghalaya is heading towards a power crisis of unprecedented proportions. Only Ri Bhoi district seems to be favoured by very few hours or no power cuts at all because the steel and other factories are located at Byrnihat and these draw the maximum power even while they also default on payment of power bills. But that aside there is today a dire need for the state to think of other power sources and not be too reliant on hydel power. Run of the river projects and dams are both dependent on the monsoons. This year April saw very little rains. Half of May has passed with the showers crossing over large tracts of Meghalaya and shedding their moisture elsewhere.
In this situation is it not time for Meghalaya to think of alternative energy sources and look at examples within the region and outside?
As far back as 2016 the ONGC had set up a 726.3MW combined-cycle gas turbine power (CCGT) plant in the Palatana village of the Udaipur District in Tripura. The first 363.3MW unit of the CCGT plant was dedicated to the nation in June 2013 and the second unit was commissioned in November 2014.
On May 1, this year the Tripura government announced that it would set up a 120 MW Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) funded by the Asian Development Bank. The gas-based thermal power project in Rokhia under Sepahijala district would be upgraded from 63MW to 120 MWunder “Capacity Augmentation,” system. The initial cost of the project was Rs 720 crore which has now increased to Rs 840 crore. The ADB would provide funding in an 80:20 ratio while the state and central government would also contribute to the project. This is called planning ahead.
It is time for Meghalaya to think along the same lines and to tap other energy sources including gas-based sources. Meghalaya has huge resources of coal which could also form the base for thermal power plants. In the 1980’s the Nangalbibra project was supposed to be a thermal power plant but was abandoned due to faulty planning then and poor connectivity. Now the Garo Hills are better connected and thermal power plants would help augment the power requirements of Meghalaya.
Power fuels all industries big and small and the power disruption these past months has also caused undue losses to young and established entrepreneurs who have had to invest in diesel run generators and buy diesel on a daily basis. This is bound to impact negatively on their businesses. The Meghalaya Government can no longer rely on hydel projects. It has to invest in alternative power sources and what better than gas and thermal based power.