Imlisanen Jamir
Surging economic and social activity is raising demand for energy across the globe and Nagaland is no exception. With households and businesses expanding, the State's Power Department projects that electricity requirement for Nagaland is expected to reach 250 MW by this year.
Current power generation capacity of the State is so negligible that Nagaland makes use of the allocated 155MW from the central sector allocation while the rest is acquired from the energy market at very high costs.
The information released in the Department of Power's annual administrative report 2018-19, while painting a rather grim picture of the current scenario, also provides opportunities for the State to engage in progressive endeavours towards sustainable energy generation.
There is only one such major operation running in the state—the Likimro Hydro Electric Project, which generates 24 MW of power. The others, which include the 1 MW Lang HEP in Noklak, 1MW Tehok HEP in Mon district and 0.54 MW Duilumroi MHP in Peren, are all relatively small scale.
The department is justified in its frustration at the lack of funding for sustainable power generation projects despite the numerous hydro potential sites yet to be exploited. “The Department, even after completion of 50 years of existence has not been able to make much headway in the area of development of Power projects,” the report stated.
The hope however is that with a handful of hydro electric projects already being initialized, the State can begin the long journey towards energy self-sufficiency. This coupled with concerted efforts from all stakeholders to imbibe a sense of responsibility while using energy resources is crucial.
Take the case for neighbouring Assam for example, where power tariff may reportedly go up by 24 per cent from April of this year.
According to officials in Assam it has become virtually impossible for the state-run power companies to continue with the existing tariff. This despite the fact, that Assam’s power generation capacity dwarfs that of Nagaland.
The availability and reliability of energy services remains crucial to sustainable development of the State. Nagaland certainly has the capacity to produce diverse and large renewable energy sources, from solar to wind and hydro.
But with little or no investment in those energy areas, oil-based electricity generation will continue to dominate for some time. However, modernizing the electrical distribution and grid systems and making buildings more energy efficient as well as replacing old equipment and appliances with high efficient ones and LED light bulbs will definitely save energy.
These reforms are critical to improving the business climate.
This new system would not only provide greater access to electricity across the State, but also help to identify concrete steps that the State needs to attract investments for sustainable energy initiatives. This should be the commitment by the State to make the energy sector more efficient, sustainable and ‘green’.
Now is the perfect time to build on any sort of momentum to make Nagaland self-sufficient in energy.
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