SHILLONG, May 22 ? With all the States in the North East in the throes of a critical power crisis, the Power Ministers of the region today expressed concern over the paradox of scarcity of power in the midst of unlimited but untapped power potential of the region. Participating in the 52nd meeting of the North Eastern Regional Electricity Board (NEREB) at Pinewood Hotel here today they urged upon the Government of India to implement the identified power projects in the region on a priority basis to reverse the trend which is adversely affecting the industrial development and economic growth of the region.
Inaugurating the meeting, Meghalaya Chief Minister D D Lapang asserted that cheap and adequate power would help in attracting investment to the region, which in turn will help in generating employment and overall growth of the region. He lamented that the per capita consumption of power in the region is only 106 KW per hour against the national average of 368 KW per hour and urged the Centre to formulate an action plan to harness the hydel power potential of the region.
Assam Power Minister Devanand Konwar revealed that the State?s power shortfall has reached an unprecedented 40 per cent of the peak demand. Blaming the NEEPCO for the situation Konwar said ?availability of power from NEEPCO plants has not been upto the expectations. Against their installed capacity of 1108 MW the declared peak availability presently is only 534 MW.
Stressing the need for an alternative he suggested that the North East should import power from Bhutan and Sikkim which have excess power. He asked the forum to impress upon the Centre to take up the implementation of identified projects like Subansiri, Kameng and Tipaimukh on a priority basis to solve the power crisis of the region.
Meghalaya Power Minister R L Tariang said the State has become power deficit from a position of surplus due to accelerated load growth caused by a liberal industrial policy. Against a generation capacity of only 45 MW the load requirement in the Byrnihat-based Export Promotion Industrial Park is around 320 MW, he disclosed.
The Minister criticized the Power Grid Corporation for its decision not to invest any further in transmission projects in the region on the plea of low profitability. Nagaland Power Minister Tiameren said that his State is also facing an acute shortage of power. He traced the shortage, among other factors to the irregular planning of shutdown of the generating stations in the region.
Citing an instance he said that the all units of Doyang and Kopili projects of NEEPCO are under shutdown at the same time. ?The resultant shortage of power in the region could probably have been avoided with proper planning? he claimed. All the Power Ministers in the region expressed concern that the transmission tariff of 35 paise per unit prevailing in the region is the highest in the country. They pleaded for uniform rates all over the country.
They said the large investments on transmission lines of this region is partly for the benefit of the region and partly for evacuation of surplus to other regions for which the North Eastern States only should not suffer and be penalized. He pointed out that the transmission tariff goes up disproportionately due to delay in the completion of the Central sector generation projects, high construction cost and under-utilization of the transmisssion system. He suggested the implementation of the power projects should be expedited to achieve optimum utilization of the expanding transmission system so that unit cost of transmission charges may be reduced. The Power Minister of Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh also participated in the discussions. Mizoram Chief Minister who also holds the power portfolio and Manipur Power Minister did not attend the one-day conference.