DIMAPUR, MARCH 11 (MExN): It is, as it was for years gone by, the same old story of electricity in Nagaland – high demand and low supply. The Department of Power on March 11 has presented its scenario, complete with tabular representations.
The press statement from the Chief Engineer’s office, Department of Power said that due to huge gap between demand and availability, it is practically impossible to meet the actual requirement. Even an additional acquirement of 20 mega watts (MW), at high costs, is not helping matters, it stated.
“Due to the huge gap between demand and availability from the allocated sources (see tables), the Department is purchasing additional 20 MW from Power exchange since December 2012 to mitigate the shortage particularly in view of the recently concluded Assembly elections and the ongoing HSLC & HSSLC examinations,” read the statement. However, it claimed, “the quantity of this additional purchase is not firm due to restrictions imposed by the North Eastern Regional Load Dispatch Centre (NERLDC) because of transmission capacity limitation in the NER and prohibitive cost exceeding more than Rs. 6.50/- per unit at times in a day.” Under such a scenario, “The Department is distributing the available power by means of coordinated load shedding throughout the state. Inspite of best efforts to maintain two hours ON – one hour OFF schedule, since the demand highly exceeds the availability, very often, it is not possible to maintain the schedule,” it added.
As on Monday evening (peak hours), the State Load Dispatch Centre at Nagarjan, Dimapur was receiving and transmitting 52 MWs. Dimapur alone consumes more than half of the allocation on any given hour, whether it is peak or off-peak hours. Earlier in the morning (off-peak hours), the state received around 40 MWs. The rate of transmission is however subject to change any given minute, depending on what is allocated by the NERLDC, Shillong.
Transmission lines damaged
If the shortage was not problematic enough, some transmission lines were damaged on Monday thanks to the fierce seasonal winds which lashed Dimapur. 33 KV Medziphema-Jalukie line, 11 KV Purana Bazaar line and another 33 KV line feeding 4th Mile and beyond were damaged.
100 MVA transformer
The highly anticipated 100 MVA transformer for the State Load Dispatch Centre, Dimapur is expected to reach by the end of March. Chief Engineer, K. Miachieo told The Morung Express that the last time (about two weeks back) the department made contact with the manufacturing company; surveyors were carrying out road survey to transport the transmission equipment. The 50 metric tonnes equipment, costing around Rs. 15 crores, requires a heavy-duty trailer specially designed for the purpose. Once on the road, it will take not less than three weeks to make the journey from Maharashtra to Dimapur.
The machine is being acquired without any down payment as a result of a mutual agreement between the contractor and the company, Er. Miachieo said. However, it came on the condition that the payment has to be made. The Department, it is learnt, has no funds to bear the cost of the transformer at present.
