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Despite rainfall, Meghalaya still is not generating enough electricity for uninterrupted power supply. This was informed by Minister incharge of Power AT Mondal.
Talking to Meghalaya News 24, Mondal said, at present Meghalaya is generating around 4.5 million units of power on an average while the state requirement is around 6.7 million units of power every day.
“We are generating around 4.5 million units of power per day as per our generation units are concern and requirements is 6.6-7 million units so you can say still a gap is there. It’s not that we are already self-sufficient. Whatever power projects are there all are injecting their generation into the grid,” the Minister said.
Mondal added that the State’s own power generation is insufficient and returning the banked power to the various generation companies are few of the reasons why the state has to resort to load shedding.
“We are buying power on a regular basis from other entities like NEEPCO, Palatana, OTPC and then Assam Gas Corporation. That is a regular thing we are buying and we need to purchase that because what is agreed upon that we will be purchasing from them. Till now our own generation is not sufficient. That’s why we are buying and we have to return the bank power also,” he added.
Admitting that One Unit of Stage -3 Umiam is overhauling, Mondal said one unit of Leshka Hydel Power project is being repaired and by the end of July or August, the third unit of Leshka Hydel Power project will start.
“Umiam stage 3 we are going for overhauling that is doing the reverse engineering, stage 4 is ok it is generating power. Leshka 2 units are working, hopefully by the end of this month or next month third where the entire thing has been overhauled will start functioning,” the Power Minister said.
Asked about the overhauling process, he said, “These are machinery parts and it needs regular maintenance and you need capital overhauling also. It may be after a gap of 5-10 years and in between sometimes it happens so that you have to go for the repair. That is exactly happened with third unit of Leshka, it’s not that we are overhauling it but we are repairing it. It takes a long time.”
“Initially they are supposed to give us by the end of October but somehow we convinced them and asked them to work in two or three shifts so that the work is over, so accordingly we expect that by July end or by august the third unit will start,” the Minister added.
Power Minister AT Mondal further said that the Government is working round the clock to reduce the load shedding hours in the state to zero even after a respite was recently given to the residents after the state witnessed a good amount of rainfall.