Chief Secretary Reviews Power Situation in Isles; Chalks out Various Long & Short Term Solutions

Details

Port Blair, Nov. 17: A meeting was convened under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary, A & N Administration, Shri Keshav Chandra, IAS in the presence of Secretary (Power), Director (Power), and Superintending Engineer (Electricity) along with senior officials of Electricity Department today. During the meeting, the power scenario and power disruption issues of Port Blair were discussed.   After detailed discussion and deliberation, various long term and short term solutions emerged along with ongoing exercise/ practice being already carried out by the Department on day to day basis to stabilize power system for maintaining uninterrupted power supply at Port Blair and adjoining areas of South Andaman. The decisions taken in the meeting are as mentioned below:

  • Special drive will be launched for line clearance in association with other line Departments of Administration to cover maximum areas.
  • Forced outages will be rectified expeditiously on war footing basis for resuming power supply at the earliest.
  • Adequate BESS capacity of 20 MWhr will be added by PSUs soon to regulate Solar Power in the grid being major cause of power disruption due to cloud intermittency during day time and to meet peak hour demand too by delivering stored excess solar power.
  • 10 MW + 5 MW DG plants on hiring basis is under installation at Bambooflat and will be commissioned in next four to five months.
  • Another 15 MW power augmentation by NTPC engaged by Ministry on nomination basis is underway, of which tender process has been initiated by NTPC.
  • Under long term solution, 50 MW LNG Power Plant will be established by NVVN at Hopetown by 2026 to cater the present and future power demand of Port Blair.
  • Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) will establish 20 MW Solar Plants each at Stewartgunj and Mithakhari with 100 MWhr BESS capacity in coming 4 to 5 years.
  • Load shedding schedule will be published in advance for awareness and convenience of general public.

In addition, the Department will further continue accelerating and will spare no efforts to resolve the power issues in all means right from no light complaints to placing of the upcoming long term projects on ground within timeline to mitigate power demand and to further improve power status in Port Blair and adjoining areas of South Andaman.