By Our Reporter
SHILLONG, Aug 31: A day after Power Minister AT Mondal announced a revised schedule of load-shedding for the entire state from September 1, the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) on Thursday defended the “small quantum of power cuts” at odd hours.
Mondal had said that Shillong and Tura will face two hours of power cuts from 1 am to 3 am while the rest of the state will have three hours of power outage.
MeECL CMD Sanjay Goyal said the announced schedule is the only effective load-shedding while other power cuts, if any, would be due to local faults and other technical issues.
“At present, the state’s maximum production of power is about 210 MW and combining the supply of power from the central generation units, the total comes to 430 MW,” Goyal said.
Out of the available power, MeECL has to return 190 MW or almost 45% of the total availability because of the power already used in the last winter season, he said.
“This is the reason why there is still a small quantum of power cut at odd hours. It is planned so as to avoid maximum inconvenience to the public,” Goyal added.