GUWAHATI, May 3 ? The Union Power Ministry has moved the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to bear the security expenditure of power projects in insurgency-hit north-eastern region even as the focus has been shifted for setting up of community-owned mini, micro and small power projects in the region to light up rural households. During an interaction with distinguished persons here, Union Minister of Power, Suresh Prabhu today informed that the security cost of NE power projects used to be included in the total project cost often resulting in steep escalation of project cost in the event of worsening of law-and-order situation in the project areas. The Power Ministry has been prompted by bitter experience in the new Tipaimukh project in Manipur to request the Ministry of Home Affairs to bear the security cost of power projects in the North East.
Meanwhile, on instruction from the Union Power Ministry, the North Eastern Electric Power Corporation (NEEPCO) has identified total 914 potent mini, micro and small hydro-power projects in seven NE States ? 492 in Arunachal Pradesh, 96 in Manipur, 98 in Meghalaya, 88 in Mizoram, 86 in Nagaland 46 in Assam and eight in Tripura ? with total capacity to generate 1845.72 MW of power. The Union Power Ministry realising that mega hydro-power projects which are basically for the purpose of exporting power from the NE region, will not benefit the common villagers in rural areas of NE, has worked out a strategy to set up small, mini, micro hydro-power projects in the region for localised generation and consumption of electricity. The Power Minister informed that these mini-micro and small projects would be handed over to the local community for maintenance after their completion. He said the Centre knowing that the NE States were not resourceful enough to set up hydro-power projects on their own, was willing to provide the fund provided the State Governments took the initiative to set up these projects.
In the event of State Governments expressing their inability to set up these projects, agencies like NEEPCO and NTPC would be asked to do the same on the States? behalf. According to the study carried out by the NEEPCO, the advantages of having such mini, micro and small projects are : these are renewable and pollution free, have negligible impact on the environment, require short gestation period, are suitable for remote and hilly regions where extension of grid is uneconomical, require small transmission system, posses flexibility of utilisation, require lesser financial requirement and have non-inflationary tendencies after completion.
Power Minister Prabhu today said that the Government of India was not for tapping the huge hydro-power potential of NE which is 38 per cent of the total national potential at the cost of rich bio-diversity of the region. Therefore, initiatives have been taken to conduct detailed study of the possible impact of hydro projects on the ecology and society of the region. Prabhu further said those hydel projects which are feared to cost the environment very high, would never be developed in the region.
Meanwhile, the Union Power Ministry has shifted its focus from generation to the neglected area of transmission and distribution in the power sector realising that all the three key areas should be interlinked. Prabhu informed that 70 per cent shortage in nationwide peak hour demand could be met through generation, but the transmission and distribution system in the country would not be able to absorb the extra generation. He pointed out that the nationwide accumulated transmission and distribution loss of power was estimated at Rs 30,000 crore. Under the Accelerated Power Development Programme (APDP), the Centre is going to set up 400 distribution circle in the country to pinpoint T&D loss in each circle and to take subsequent preventive measures. At the first phase, 60 such distribution circles would be set up with Central fund as models all over the country.
Talking about the sorry state of affairs in the State Electricity Boards (SEBs), the Union Power Minister informed that the accumulated loss of these Boards stood at Rs 26,000 crore. To provide relief to these SEBs, the Centre will take off the Rs 41,000 crore dues from the SEBs from the balancesheet as per the recommendation of Montek Singh Ahluwalia Committee. New accounting norms for the SEBs will be worked out soon to help them streamline their performance.