Central Electrical Authority of India estimates 5% to 7% increase
Al Ngullie | EMN
Dimapur, August 8
THE ‘dark ages’ will haunt Nagaland for some more time. The relentless shortage of electricity and energy peripherals in Nagaland is projected to aggravate during the year 2013-2014 in the form of a dramatic jump in demand/requirement for power. The Central Electrical Authority of India (CEA), central Ministry of Power, has said that a jump in demand/requirement of electricity in Nagaland is expected in the concurrent period of 2013-2014. The increase is most likely to be from 5% at least to 7%, the CEA said today.
The CEA has estimated that Nagaland’s power-requirement in the concurrent period of 2013-2014 (latter part of this year and the next, 2014) would jump to at least 125 megawatts from the current demand (2012) of 80-to-110 megawatts.
The estimation for Nagaland’s power scenario is elaborated in the CEA’s ‘Load generation Report’ released recently. The CEA has released the extensive report detailing the state’s load generation balance situation and offering an estimation of the scenario Nagaland’s power sector would likely be facing in the concurrent year, 2013-2014.
In March 2013, the state’s Chief Engineer for Power K Miachieo had lamented that the “actual availability” of electricity during peak-hours was 60 megawatts in contrast to 40 megawatts during off-peak hours. The figures characterizing the current situation is almost irrelevant comparing to the distressing projections the CEA has made for the hilly north eastern state infamous for her “load-shedding” marathons.
Coincidentally, even the Ministry of Power came out with a statement in the Parliament today that the entire country is likely to face a shortage of at least 6.7% in power supply during 2013-2014. This not-so-good-news was given to the Rajya Sabha by Minister of State in-charge of Power Jyotiraditya M Scindia in New Delhi. He was quoting from a separate projection prepared by the CEA as well.
According to the report for Nagaland by CEA, the “anticipated” position of power supply in the state would be an increase of 5% to 7%. Nagaland’s energy requirement for the year 2013-2014 would be 591 mega units while only 558 is available currently. Likewise, the “anticipated” month-wise power supply position for Nagaland in 2013-2014 would touch 125 megawatts while only 114 MW will be available. This is a deficit of -8 %, the CEA said.
Also, during the concurrent 2012-2013, Nagaland faced an energy shortage in the range of 5% to 7%, the CEA said. The report said the state requires (actual position) 567 mega units while only 535 mega units is available
Further, the actual power supply situation in terms of Demand-in and Demand-met during the year 2012-2013 stands at 110 megawatts (peak demand). Out of it, only 109 megawatts was met. Another details offered by the CEA was that the scheduled energy “drawal” entitled to Nagaland during 2012-2013 was 410.69 mega units. However, the state drew 411.53 mega units.
According to the CEA, the installed power capacity of Nagaland totals to 103.18 MW from two sources – hydro (53.32 MW) and thermal (gas and coal) generation.
