Dimapur: Amid the scorching heat, people across Nagaland are reeling under severe power outages. Nagaland power department on Friday said it was compelled to impose load-shedding throughout the state due to low electricity generation in the hydropower stations and the resultant reduced power allocation to the state.
It said presently, the state’s power availability is around 147 MW as against peak demand of 180 MW. The department informed that the state-owned Likimro Hydro Electric Project has also been generating around 6 to 12 MW only out of its installed capacity of 24 MW for approximately 12 hours a day due to poor hydrological conditions during this season.
“Due to extreme weather conditions during the last few days, there has been a rise in the power demand resulting in the burning of distribution transformers due to overloading especially in Dimapur and adjoining areas,” it said adding the divisions concerned are making all efforts to restore/replace the damaged transformers on a war footing.
The department also said one of the units of the Palatana Thermal Power Station located in Tripura from where the state gets maximum allocation was scheduled to be shutdown from June 2 for annual maintenance which would further aggravate the state’s power shortage situation.
The department said it is arranging to purchase additional power at a higher cost as a short-term measure during this crisis to tide over the power shortage.
“As load shedding is inevitable, the department is regulating the load shedding on a rotational basis among the three load centres of the state in Dimapur, Kohima and Mokokchung.
Anticipating that this power shortage and load-shedding crisis will repeat every year, the department said Nagaland is 90% dependent on the import of power.
“The only long-term solution is for a concerted and prioritised effort to reduce this dependency up to the extent possible by developing our own internal hydro power generation which it at present is facing some difficulties to overcome,” the department added.
As the domestic loads are increasing day by day due to the rise in installations and usage of high power-consuming electrical appliances like air conditioners, refrigerators, water boilers and rice cookers, etc., the department appealed to the consumers for judicious use of electricity by switching off appliances when not in use. It hoped this practice will help in reducing domestic load consumption to a large extent and contribute immensely to reducing the duration and quantum of load-shedding.
The department asserted that the power situation will improve with the onset of the monsoon. It appealed to bear with the inconveniences caused due to the power instability.