87.5 per cent of villages electrified: Ibobi
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, June 29 2016: Under the Ministry of Power, GoI has committed 100 percent elec-trification of all villages by 2018 and accessibility (of electricity) to all households by 2019 and Manipur already has achieved 87.5 per cent village electrification out of 2582 villages, stated Chief Minister O Ibobi at a conference on Electricity and Related Issues Redressal in Manipur at Hotel Classic Grande, Imphal.

The remaining villages would be electrified under Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) whereas off-grid villages by MANIREDA.

Under the Restructured Accelerated Power Development and Reforms Programme, 12 out of 13 villages have been declared Go-Live so far and distribution infrastructure strengthening work for eight towns out of 13 towns has been completed as on date with overall target completion by March 2017, stated Ibobi.

To ensure round the clock power supply in Imphal and other district head quarters around 1350 MU of annual energy may be required.

Whereas the present power allocation from Central Power sector Unit's is about 1000 MU.

Chief Minister O Ibobi addresses the conference

Ibobi stated that in order to address the grievances of the consumers, a Customer Care Centre has been opened within the jurisdiction of 13 towns including Imphal city at Lamphelpat.

An online web-portal has been launched to facilitate online prepaid recharge , online bill generation, bill payment for post-paid consumers and no-due certificate automation for Govt.employees too.

To reduce Aggregated Technical and Commercial losses, all unauthorized consumers have been regularized by installing prepaid meters with a minimal first time recharge of Rs 200.This helped to reduce the commercial losses due to unauthorized hooking.

Notably, after installing prepaid meters, monthly average revenue collection has been increased from Rs 4 crore (2013-14) to Rs 11 crore (2015-16).Till today, approximately 2.2 lakh prepaid metres have been installed and the target of 3.5 lakh prepaid metres would be achieved by December 2016 .

The State has achieved commendable progress in Renewable Energy power sector.

MANIREDA has successfully generated 4.2 MW off-grid renewable energy through solar, wind, hydro, biomass and hybrid projects.

He continued that the State Govt.along with National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) have formed a joint venture company a few years back to generate 66 MW from Loktak downstream hydroelectric project.

During the last decade, tremendous transmission system infrastructure has been created at appropriate load centres thereby raising the transformation capacity at 132 KV and 33 KV from 21 MVA and 222 MVA in 2009 to 517 MVA and 524 MVA in March, 2016, respectively with funding among others from NLCPR, NEC, SPA, ACA and State Plan.

To handle the anticipated quantum of load, higher transmission system voltage of 400 KV is being adopted with construction of 315 MVA, 400/132 KV sub-station at Thoubal.

The State has taken up initiatives for expansion of 132 KV transmission system infrastructure to the remote corners like Thanlon and Tipaimukh at high cost for delivering good quality and reliable power with good voltage regulation.

For reliability of supply, on the insistence of State Govt, the 5th Standing Committee on Power System Planning of North Eastern Region has agreed to extend 400 KV line from Imphal to Misa via New Kohima and New Mariani forming a 400 KV ring loop of Imphal-New Kohima-New Mariani-Misa-Balipura-Bongaigoan-Azara-Byrnihat-Silchar-Imphal benefiting all the NE States.

Ibobi stated that, to reduce and remove the hurdles faced by consumers related to power supply in the State, deliberation on various issues will be helpful in solving the infrastructure constraints, poor transmission and sub-transmission system, inadequate distribution network and problems in generation projects.

Chief Minister O Ibobi and Chairperson, Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission, (Manipur and Mizoram) RK Kishore Singh graced the inaugural session of the conference as chief guest and president respectively.

The conference was jointly organized by Joint Electricity Regulatory Commission (JERC) of Manipur and Mizoram, Manipur State Power Company Ltd.

and Manipur State Power Distribution Company Ltd.

JERC Chief Engineer L Pachuau, JERC Assistant Chief Engineer Thantianga, MANIREDA Director L Manglem Singh and other officials took part in the discussion session which followed the inaugural session.