SHILLONG, Feb 21: The state government has sought the support of other Northeastern states in pressing upon the Central government to revisit the Pump Storage Policy, Power Minister AT Mondal said during the 28th North Eastern Regional Power Committee (NERPC) meeting in Guwahati on Friday.
Mondal said that revisiting the Pump Storage Policy would help smaller states that have the potential but no major peak demand, get the benefit of the project.
Mondal apprised the forum about the steps taken by the Government of Meghalaya to harness the potential of hydropower available in the state as he briefed the forum on the progress of the Riangdo Small Hydro Project, DPR preparation for Myndtu Leshka Stage II project and the proposal that have been received from the private developers for developing small hydro projects.
He briefed about the key schemes and proposals submitted by Meghalaya under the PSDF concerning Transmission, Distribution and State Load Dispatch centres that aim at improving the system reliability, quality of supply and cyber security and requested early sanction of the same.
Emphasising the importance of downstream infrastructure, Mondal requested that the funding of the 33 KV sub-stations for last-mile connectivity which was submitted by MePDCL in August 2024 should be expedited to ensure that there is no congestion in the distribution system.
“This would ultimately result in the availability of 24X7 quality power for the consumers of Meghalaya,” he said while adding that the state is committed to having a robust resource adequacy plan in place to ensure that there is no probability of loss of load at any point of time.
It was also decided that Meghalaya will chair the NERPC for the Financial Year 2025-26.
