Meghalaya govt to start micro grid systems in select villages

The Meghalaya government will provide micro grid systems in some villages in the state where power will be generated using renewable resources and energy thus saved will be routed to industries, Chief Minister Mukul Sangma said today.
"We have identified certain villages in the state where there is a possibility of them being delinked from the main grid after they are provided with renewable power," Sangma said while addressing a national seminar on how power sector impacts on economic growth and industrial development.
He said these micro grid systems would be set up in a radius of one to two kms and in a cluster of villages, while generation of power would solely be on renewable resources like solar, wind and biomass.

The project, if successful, would be beneficial to the state and once the set up is in place and the clusters of villages delinked from the grid, the energy thus saved could be routed to industries where it (power) could be sold at a higher rate, the Chief Minister said.
Earlier, state Chief Secretary P B O Warjri said changes in the erstwhile electricity board to three fully corporatised bodies has faced some hiccups.
"There are many challenges as we change from a government- run culture (in the erstwhile Meghalaya Electricity Board) to a corporate culture (the newly formed generation, transmission and distribution companies)," he said.

The new corporate bodies have to present their accounts professionally and adopt new ways of functioning, Warjri said.
Meghalaya Electricity Regulatory Commission chairman P Anand Kumar who also addressed the seminar, said the country in general and Meghalaya in particular has to generate five to six per cent more power if it expects its economy to grow by eight to nine per cent in a year.
Kumar also called for improvement of the transmission system, enabling states to share and exchange power during surplus periods and avail the same during lean seasons.