Sarthak Kanjilal
Port Blair, May 05: The Secretary (Power), Mr. S K Bhandari today said that keeping in mind, the cost of power generation in the Islands, efforts are being made to tap and establish renewable sources of energy.
Addressing a press conference at the Conference Hall of Secretariat this evening, the Secretary said that a 5.25 MW hydraulic power generation has been set up at Diglipur, and a 5 MW solar power generation at Garacharama, while efforts are on for installation of 1.2 MW biomass plant and 750 KW wind power plant at Car Nicobar. Installation of 50 KW solar plant at Raj Niwas, revival and up-gradation of 50 KW power plant at Havelock and Neil Islands are also underway.
He said that the Electricity Department and the Government first target is to provide 24 X 7 power to the people of the country and the second target is to extract maximum renewable energy. The electricity department of the islands deals with two kinds of sources (i.e) conventional source of energy and renewable source of energy.
Further giving an introduction about the electricity department Mr Bhandari said that the department produces electricity in 19 different Islands and supplies electricity through 53 different power houses to one lakh eighteen thousand consumers. He said that out of 53 power houses, 12 are in North Andaman, 16 in South Andaman and 25 are in Car Nicobar. He added that the department has the generating capacity of 70 MW against the peak load requirement of 58 MW.
As of now, 91% power is generated through DG sets and only 9% through renewable energy while 83% of the electric connections are domestic consumption and 17% commercial consumption, he explained.
He said that the departments provide electricity to the 96% of the population of the islands and the total employee strength of the department is 3024.
On the utilisation of funds allocated for the power sector, Mr Bhandari informed that 68% of the 523 crores allocation is utilised for purchase of diesel, while optimal utilisation of grants in the Plan Fund is ensured for transportation and purchase of lube oil to provide highly subsidized power to the consumers in these islands, he said.
Approximately one lakh households will be covered under this scheme, each household will be given 04 LED bulbs @ Rs. 10/- each. The use of these LED bulbs will reduce the power consumption and save expenditure towards the electricity bills of the consumers, he added.
The press conference was organised following directives of Lt. Governor to share public related information with media so that public comes to know about the development initiatives of Administration. The Secretary (IP), Mr. S.N. Misra was also present during the press conference.
