SHILLONG, May 29: With Meghalaya facing one of its worst-ever power crisis, arrival of the rainfall is likely to end the citizens’ wait for uninterrupted electricity supply. The power generation in the state is likely to witness a slight improvement by next month thanks to the regular spell of shower which the state is witnessing lately.
The arrival of the monsoon is likely to improve the situation further, an official from the Power Department said on Monday.
The official revealed that the state’s generation capacity has improved slightly.
“There is some improvement but it is not substantial,” the official said while adding that the water level of the Umiam Lake has not gone up.
Admitting that it is Umiam Hydroelectric project which provides main support to the state especially during the dry spell in January–February, the official said the Myntdu-Leshka project is able to support the state only till September-October since it is a run of the river project.
The official sounded optimistic that the state’s generation capacity will improve with the advent of the monsoon (possibly by next week) and even the central generating units would increase their production and provide a certain percentage of their output to the state.
It is said that the central generating units provides power to Meghalaya depending on their generation and now even their condition is similar to the generating units in Meghalaya.
“When the situation improves, we will get more share from the central units,” the official added.
As of now, Meghalaya is witnessing 10 hours of load shedding every day except for Shillong and Tura where the citizens experience power cuts for eight hours daily.
Power Minister AT Mondal had recently said that until the state gets a good amount of rainfall in the coming days and weeks, load-shedding will continue.
“All our power sources depend on water being available and with all rivers in the state running dry, the situation is grim. We are now utilising the time provided to repair the infrastructure that has been damaged so that once we are back on track, we can ensure minimum interruptions,” Mondal had said.
He had also stated that the government is looking very closely at the Ganol project in Garo Hills and it will ensure its commissioning this year to provide additional relief to people.
