The Goan Special
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PANAJI
Projects approved by the investment promotion board (IPB) will suck around 70 megawatts of power from the system at a time when existing industries are complaining about power cuts and fluctuating voltage, which has required them to rely on gensets.
Ever since the IPB came into being in 2014, it has pressed the accelerators on clearing projects to bring more employment and investment into the State. But, all these projects will obviously require more power as well, which will be entirely supplied by electricity department of government of Goa.
Of all the projects cleared by the IPB, Cipla’s project will require the maximum power at around 10,588 kilowatts. Then, there is MRF’s project, which will require around 5,880 kilowatts of power.
There are number of projects belonging to companies like Indoco Remedies, Ordain Health Care Global, Cartini India, Ozone Leisure & Resorts and Alcon Cement Company, which will require power anywhere between 2,000 and 3,000 kilowatts.
Although the excess requirement of power will place a considerable load on the system, it might be recalled that Power Minister Milind Naik, in a written reply to the Assembly had said that status of power in Goa is adequate.
However, Goa does have issues with transmission and distribution of power.
Praveen Blaggon, president, Honda Industrial Estate, said, “In monsoons, every day we have power cut of 90 to 120 minutes. This is due to faults, which are caused by rains. If a fault happens within the industrial estate then Goa Industrial Development Corporation’s (GIDC) staff repairs it. But, if the fault happens outside the estate, then the team comes from Valpoi to repair it, which takes lot of time”.
Damodar Kochkar, president, Verna Industrial Estate, said, “We are having power cuts every day due to rains. Besides, there is no underground cabling at this industrial estate, which results in issues like fluctuating voltage”.
Kochkar continued, “Reliance Energy used to take power from the government to distribute it to industries. During that time, there was not voltage fluctuation because they had built the right infrastructure. But now, voltage fluctuates as government distributes power”.
In order to overcome voltage fluctuations, which occur due to supply issues, larger units tend to switch to diesel-operated generation sets.
Power minister Naik had also informed the Assembly that the State government intends to invest more than Rs 1,500 crore on electricity infrastructure in the next two to three years. For this, the government has prepared a detailed project report and has submitted it to ministry of power of central government for assistance.
It must be noted that 70 megawatts of power is requirement of only 67 projects. The Goan Everyday got most of this information as a reply to a request for information (RTI) filed at the IPB. IPB, however, did not provide information about power requirement of 23 projects.
