SHILLONG: Confronted with considerable jump in power demand, the various hydro-based projects will not be able to meet the base load requirement even with the commissioning of two new hydro projects in March 2018.
This was stated by Power Minister Comingone Ymbon at the conference on Energising North East on Tuesday held at State Convention Centre.
“This only shows that the state still has a long way to go in terms of self-sufficiency as far as power generation is concerned despite having large scope for development of small and medium power stations,” he said.
Informing that the state’s power generation is from the Meghalaya Power Generation Corporation Ltd (MePGCL), he said, “The average annual energy generated from the state’s own power stations is around 900 million units (MU) only against a demand of around 1600 MU.”
He further stated that the existing power capacity available from the state’s generation and central power sector share amounts to only 634 MW.
“However, with the commissioning of New Umtru Hydel Electric Project of 40 MW commercially with effect from July 1, 2017, the total existing power capacity will be enhanced to 734 MW,” the power minister informed.
Further, he said that though the state has been identified to have a hydro potential of about 3,000 MW, the tapped potential is only around 11 per cent.
Ymbon informed that with the commissioning of Myntdu-Leshka Hydro Electric Project and the facility of power swapping, the whole scenario of power equation in the state has changed.
He said, “The power availability in the state has improved and the state was able to surrender some of the costlier central power share.”
He informed that modernisation, upgradation and renovation of Umiam Stage I and Stage II is complete and more are in the pipeline.
With regards to solar energy programme, the minister said that the state government in collaboration with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) is distributing home and street lighting systems, solar lanterns and water heating system, among other things.
Referring to renewable energy resources, Ymbon said the state is not yet placed in the renewable energy map of India in spite of having a huge potential.
Meanwhile, Pankaj Kumar, secretary of the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, spoke on the mandatory implementation of Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) that was launched in 2007 so as to have suitable policies and programmes for building efficiency.
In this connection, to make ECBC mandatory, he said he would speak to officials of the Urban Affairs Department.
Source: theshillongtimes
