Kuzholuzo Nienu suggests exploring thermal and solar energy to address Power crisis in Nagaland

DIMAPUR — Discussing the status of power supply in the state during the fourth session of the 14th Nagaland Legislative Assembly (NLA) on Friday, MLA Kuzholuzo Nienu suggested exploration of thermal and solar energy to address the power shortage.

Responding to a starred question, Minister in-charge of Power K.G Kenye revealed that the peak demand is 180MW against the state’s capacity of generating 21MW of power during the monsoon and 7MW during the lean season.

The state-owned hydroelectric projects currently generate a maximum of 6-7MW for 10 hours, he said while acknowledging the average shortfall ranges from 14.1MW to 60.5MW, according to a DIPR update.

Explaining the cause of the erratic power supply, he said the average availability of power from inter-state generating stations and state-owned generation stations is only 138MW during the monsoon and 110MW during the lean season, which is much lower than the peak demand. Additionally, hydro generating stations are unable to meet their full potential during the lean hydro season (December to April), and several thermal power stations in the region undergo shutdowns for maintenance, reducing the central sector allocation for the state, it was informed.

The minister also highlighted inadequate infrastructure in transmission and distribution systems as a contributing factor to the power supply issues.