Arunachla Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Chowna Mein on Tuesday urged the officers of the hydro-power development department and Arunachal Pradesh Energy Development Agency (APEDA) to work a tad bit harder so as to achieve the domestic power requirement of the state within three years.
Mein also asked the officers of the power department to set the target of power self-sufficiency by 2024.
The Arunachal Pradesh Deputy CM, who convened a review meeting of the two departments at his office in Itanagar, said that that by the end of three years, the department should reduce the power purchase expenditure of Arunachal to the extent of 100 per cent.
“Only after achieving this target we can think of supplying surplus power to the rest of the nation,” he said.
Arunachal Pradesh has a huge potential of hydro-power generation with a capacity to generate 40 percent power requirements of the nation. The state, however, is producing only 1 per cent in today’s date.
Mein said the government is ready to provide necessary fund for repair and maintenance of the non-operational hydro-power stations but the departments concerned have to show results by generating revenue from those power stations.
In the meeting, chief engineer of hydro-power development, P Tupe informed that only 70 out of 126 hydel power stations which are maintained and operated by his department in the state are operational thereby generating 10 MW power in a year out of the total capacity of 65 MW.
He said that the department has, however, earned revenue of Rs 35 crore from the 10 MW of power generated.
Tupe assured that his department will fulfill the basic power requirement of State for domestic consumption within three years as it aims to generate 195 MW power through small hydro electric projects which would have a capacity of 25 MW each.
APEDA director, M Loya presented an overview of his agency and the proposed policy for micro and mini hydro power projects which aims to involve village panchayats and NGOs in harnessing renewable energy sources.