Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma called on Union Power Minister, RK Singh at his official residence here on Saturday.
The Chief Minister briefed the Power Minister about the unprecedented 26 per cent increase in power demand due to growth of productive sectors of the economy.
Power Minister Singh assured that he would consider the personal request of the Chief Minister to allocate at least 300MW of power to Assam to tide over the current power deficit.
Later, taking to X (formerly Twitter), the Chief Minister said, “Had an excellent discussion with Hon’ble Union Power Minister Shri RK Singh ji.I briefed him on the unprecedented 26% increase in power demand due to growth of productive sectors of the economy. He has assured to kindly consider my personal request to allocate at least 300 MW of power to Assam, which will aid in tiding over the current power deficit.”Sarma recently said that state’s peak hour electricity demand has increased from 18OO MW to 2500.
There is load shedding the state. Sarma said, “ There is load shedding for some time. Earlier, electricity demand during the peak hours was 1800 MW. State on its own generate 165 MW while the rest are purchased. It is astounding that electricity demand has gone up that high.”
He added, “ State government has entered into arrangements . We purchase power from open sources. The rate of electricity is Rs 10 per MW. We have to purchase 700 MW of electricity from open source to meet the demand in peak hours and supply electricity constantly to the people. We have to pay Rs 6 crore daily. We will need Rs 720 crore additionally for the purchase of electricity for four months.”
He said, “ We will discuss if we can restrict the peak hour load to 2000 MW by load shedding. We are exploring different things. We will see if tariffs can be increased. There are two factors for the increase of electricity demand in the state. Firstly, 50 MW of power is used for railway electrification works. Secondly, due to the rapid industrialization of the state, power demands go up.”
He said, “But in the next year, Neyveli Uttar Pradesh Power Ltd (NUPPL) will supply 260 MW from the NUPPL’s 3×660 MW Ghatampur Thermal Power Plant. If Subansiri Lower Hydro Electricity Project commissions, we will receive 500 MW from them. It will improve our power situation.”
