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Power Policy |
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Present Power Situation in Meghalaya |
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- At present, Meghalaya is having only hydro generation. During non-monsoon period, availability of power becomes low and even the restricted load demand of the State has to be met through import of power from the NE grid. This is mainly due to the new liberalized industrial policy of Meghalaya that has triggered an unprecedented load growth in the industrial sector of Meghalaya, coupled with identical growth in other sectors due to accelerated power development and reform process
- The Me.S.E.B.’s own Hydel power generation capacity is only 185.2 MW and central power share is approximately 132 MW. This capacity is unable to cater the present requirement of power and increase in demand. Moreover, the average annual energy generation from State own Power Stations are around 450 MU only. The energy availability, in all probabilities shall remain at 450 MU for years to come till commissioning of the 84 MW, Myntdu Leshka Hydro Electric Project of 2 x 42 MW capacity in 2007-08.
- With the phenomenal increase in power demand owing to growth of industries the unrestricted peak load demand for the year 2007-08 is projected at 610 MW.
- It is expected that with the present trend of increase in peak load, the anticipated unrestricted peak demand of Meghalaya at the end of 11th Plan, would be of the order of 800 MW.
- To meet the demand, Meghalaya has to import power but this too has a limitation due to transmission and transformation constraints, where MeSEB can draw only 120-140 MW and 60-80 MW during off peak and peak hours respectively.
- It would still be difficult to cope with the actual peak load demand of the State even with the commissioning of 84 MW in 2007-08 and another 40 MW of New Umtru by 2009-10. Therefore, to meet this critical situation, Meghalaya has to explore an immediate remedy in capacity addition and improvement of inter state transmission networks.
- The existing transmission network such as the 132 KV Guwahati line - I & II also need immediate renovation and changing of conductors. A transmission network master plan which is urgently required is being prepared for the state, so that power evacuation from the various potential sites could be put in place. This would also serve as a mean for easy drawal of power by industrial consumers of different districts under open access as envisaged in the IE Act, 2003.
- To meet the immediate shortage of power and to protect the State from probable collapse of power supply due to failure of monsoon, it is of utmost importance to immediately develop thermal power stations in the State. In Meghalaya there is not a single thermal power station and hence the prescribed thermal - hydro mix is not available at all. This over-dependence on nature is a very critical and dangerous position in view of vagaries of monsoon and in the event of drought in this part of the region. A thermal project of suitable capacity to provide base load is necessary. This would also provide an ideal thermal - hydro mix at 60 : 40 ratio which will provide better stability and security in the power system of Meghalaya throughout the year.
- Side by side, the development of hydro power in the State shall take place at a pace to meet the need as per the power surveys and every district of the state shall have a H.E. plant for their overall development.
- The development of mini, micro and small hydel projects have not taken off appreciably and therefore the State of Meghalaya shall take up the task of developing the enormous potential of the mini, micro and small hydel project to produce and supplement cheap, reliable, unpolluted and non-wasting source of electric energy of the state to supply power to the isolated and remote areas of the State.
- Although 100% System metering was completed in November 2004, Energy auditing is still in its infancy stage due to lack of infrastructure for a fully computerized system of auditing and also due to lack of DT metering, absence of proper consumer indexing, and inadequate consumer metering and billing.
- The reforms and restructuring of the State Electricity Board is likely to be completed shortly.
- Due to the liberalized Industrial policy of the Government, the growth in the industrial sector is expected to grow exponentially. Thus exponential growth in generation capacity addition appears to be the need of the day. The growth in the domestic /commercial front is still manageable even till the end of the 11th Plan and further.
- Few industries have installed their own captive generating plant and as per IE Act 2003
- The trend in the increase of power demand in the State is at Appendix I, the list of projects where survey are being undertaken under the Plan Period is at appendix II and the list of projects expected to be commissioned under the different plans period is at Appendix III and IV.
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