Power Minister assured to provide uninterrupted power supply in state during the shut down for next 3 month .
Itanagar
The Ranganadi Hydro Electric project (RHEP) in Lower Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh will stop production of electricity for three months , from 1st Feb to 30th April, 2019, due to repair and maintenance of the project, informed state Power Minister Tamio Taga in a press conference on Thursday.
Convening this message on the request of NEEPCO, Minister for Power, Tamiyo Taga said that the shutdown was felt necessitated to facilitate its early maintenance which he pointed that if not repaired immediately then might result in complete collapse of the project.
With the shutting down of the project owned by the NEEPCO,Arunachal Pradesh would face power shortage to the tune of 60 MW daily, officials said.
“To overcome the shortfall of 60 mw power, Chief Minister Pema Khandu and I wrote to the Union Minister of State for Power to allocate additional power from Central sector power generating stations and after much persuasion, the ministry allocated 30 mw of power from Unchahar-I Therma Power Plant of NTPC to the state on round the clock basis for three months,” the minister informed.
In addition to that, Taga said the NEEPCO headquarter based at Shillong has also agreed to allocate interrupted power supply of 34 MW through another PPA with state government from its power generating stations such KathalGuri gas power station, Assam-10 MW and Agartala thermal combined cycle-24 MW.
“Now there will be 104 MW of power available with an existing available share of 40 MW from the central sector in the state to cope with the average peak demand of power supply in the state which is 100 MW as per record, ” he said.
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When asked why NEEPCO didn’t serve any prior shutdown notice when the defects in the tunnel was detected months back, Taga clarified that the state has no role in deciding of the shutdown of RHEP as all state of affairs of grid-related issues in the northeast are taken by the North Eastern Regional Power Committee (NERPC) only.
Accompanying the Power Minister, Superintending Engineer, electrical system operation, Nangkong perme, and Chief Engineer, Western Electrical zone, Gumdo Doji claimed that the power supply from these electric generation facilities would be sufficient enough to generate power for domestic and commercial consumption to the grid-connected districts till RHEP is fully restored.
However both the engineers admitted that consumers may face temporary power disruption during peak hours due to switching of grid supply lines.
The duo also claimed that power supply to districts such as Tawang, Anjaw, Dibang Valley and Shi Yomi would not be affected due to shut down as they are purely dependent on the local generation of Power.
Further informing that repair work of tunnel will be taken up by the NEEPCO authority on war footing, the trio requested consumers to bear the inconveniences with the department at this crucial hour until the RHEP is fully restored.
However Taga shows his concern as it is a shocking news as it may affect the students due to final examination and general election and simultaneous election in state and we are pursuing the central government and of sources nothing to worry. He said.
The local sources however said that a tunnel of NEEPCO constructed on Ranganadi river have developed leakage and the agency will repair it for which sufficient time is needed. The people living in downstream is worrying about flood like situation if the huge volume of water is released abruptly without maintaining the label of volume of water discharge.
When asked about the another 110 MW Pare Hydro electric project (PHEP)at Doimukh which generating power supply since June 2018, System Engineer, SE Perme said that in winter Pare river have enough water in summer but in winter it does not have enough river water discharge and it run its tail ways but the water of Ranghanadi discharge also goes and makes run in winter hardly for few hours but due to shut down the generation of NEEPCO project of PHEP at Doimukh will also affected. But could not elaborated the technical problem in commissioning of the Kameng Hydel electric project (KHEP) in Bichom in West Kameng district
