Power scenario : State seeks Centre's aid
Source: The Sangai Express / Manipur Info Centre

New Delhi, September 10 2014: While appreciating the new initiative of the Government of India to provide 24 X 7 power supply to all in a time bound manner, Mairembam Prithviraj, Parliamentary Secretary (Tourism & Sports) of Manipur sought the Centre's support for providing 24 hours power supply for each household in Manipur.

He was speaking at the Conference of Power Ministers held at Vigyan Bhavan here on Tuesday, on behalf of Chief Minister O Ibobi who is in charge of Power.

Prithviraj conveyed the best wishes extended from the Manipur Chief Minister who desired to personally attend the conference but could not attend due to urgent pressing engagements within the State.

The Parliamentary Secretary informed that the State Government had recently unbundled and corporatized the State Electricity Department into two State corporate entities namely Manipur State Power Company Ltd (MSPCL) and Manipur State Power Distribution Company Ltd (MSPDCL).

The initial signs were quite encouraging with significant improvement in both quality and quantity of power.

Parliamentary Secretary M Prithiviraj makes a point

On the generation front, Prithviraj stated that despite a potential of more than 2000 MW in hydro sector in Manipur, the State had an installed capacity of 105 MW only in the form of Loktak Hydroelectric Project under the National Hydro Power Corporation.

He underlined, "If the hydro potential is harnessed properly, we can comfortably manage the increasing power demand of the State" .

He informed that the State Government adopted the Hydro Power Policy in 2012 to expedite the development of hydro power projects both through private and public sector developers in the State.

The State Government recently signed Pre-Implementation Agreements of four Hydro Electric Projects having a total capacity of about 368 MW with NEEPCO Ltd.

He said, "We need similar support from NHPC also which can take up some of the medium sector hydro projects in the State" .

Prithviraj drew the attention of the Centre in expediting the 66 MW Loktak Downstream Hydro Project in Tamenglong district which is currently at the bidding stage.

The project cost would be more than Rs 1400 crore after the support of Rs 200 crore from the State.

Keeping in view the socio-economic spin offs to the State, he urged the Centre to extend some grant and soft loan to complete the project.

On transmission front, Prithviraj mentioned that the State suffered from both inter-State and intra-State transmission constraints.

He said, "In my State, the inter-State power transmission is operated at 132 KV voltage system through the existing Dimapur- Imphal and Leimatak- Jiribam 132 KV lines of Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL) and maximum loading is limited to 100 MW only.

We earnestly look forward to the completion of the 400 KV Double Circuit line from Silchar to Imphal initially chargeable to 132 KV system voltage, being constructed by PGCIL.

This line, once completed will definitely remove the inter-State transmission constraints for the State".

He also proposed to extend the 400KV line up to Misa in Assam to have a 400 KV ring main consisting of Misa- Balipara- Bongaigaon- Azara- Byrnihat- Silchar- Imphal- New Kohima - Misa.

He further stated, " The total availability of power within the State is a major area of concern for Manipur.

Against the maximum power requirement of 240 MW during peak hour and 150 MW during the off-peak hours, the corresponding availability of power ranges from 110-140 MW and 60-90 MW.

While all the States of North Eastern region namely Assam, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh have share allocation in Central Sector stations from Eastern Region like Farakka, Kahalgaon and Talcher; Manipur does not have any allocation from the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) plants in Eastern Region".

He drew the attention of the Centre to provide some allocation of at least 25 MW from the NTPC to improve the power situation in Manipur.

Prithviraj stated that State Government was committed to reducing AT & C (Aggregate Technical and Commercial) losses in the power sector in Manipur.

There was significant improvement with reduction in AT & C losses to 52 per cent from 64 per cent in three years.

It had been partially possible due to introduction of 100 per cent metering programme targeting to cover 80,000 consumers in urban areas with pre-paid metering system and remaining consumers with post-paid electronic energy meters.

He said that MSPDL has already installed and energized about 40,000 numbers of pre-payment meters in core areas of the State and was targeting 100 per cent metering by March 2015.Cent percent metering of all the 132 KV, 33 KV and 11 KV feeders had been taken up on priority basis.

The Aerial Bunch Cables was being used in Low Transmission lines to prevent power thefts.

To continue and sustain those efforts, he drew the attention of the Union Minister of Power for extending financial support in the form of a scheme for 100 per cent metering with AB cables.

On renewable front, the Parliamentary Secretary stated that the State Government successfully provided domestic lighting requirements to more than 200 villages mostly in difficult and inaccessible areas of the State through solar, wind, small hydro, and biomass technologies.

Total installed capacity of Renewable Energy sector in the State was 3.7 MW.

Installation of about 35000 solar water heaters was completed and commissioned.

Prithviraj apprised that the Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM) under the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy was targeting installation of 20,000 MW of grid connected solar power within the year 2022.Considering geographical and technical limitations, no parties were coming forward for establishment of solar power projects in the State.

Due to financial constraints, in absence of part funding from Central Government, the State government alone was not in a position to fund such large scale projects.

He urged the Union Government to consider establishment of one MW scale grid connected solar power plants for each of the North Eastern States especially Manipur for demonstration purposes.

Rajesh Aggarwal, Commissioner of Power of Manipur and Sudan Ramasamy, Managing Director of Manipur State Power Distribution Company Limited accompanied Mairembam Prithviraj, Parliamentary Secretary (Tourism and Sports) in the Conference.