PANAJI
Power Minister Nilesh Cabral has said that the government has fulfilled its promise of 100% household electrification in Goa.
Cabral informed that the Electricity Department has issued all the relevant work orders and asserted that the government is all set to meet the target by year-end.
“We have achieved 100 per cent household electrification by steadily working towards our target. Wherever our electricity grid does not reach, we have put in solar panels and given plug points to each household,” said the Power Minister. The solar panels are expected to be maintained for a period of five years.
Back in October, Cabral had stated that 250 households had yet to be covered under electrical grids. “We covered 100 households and then 150 which were in remotest hinterlands. But during this process, 151 more households were identified for which also we have issued the work order,” he said. By this year end, the entire state will be linked to a power source.
As a part of its active exploration of the renewable energy sector, the department has also employed solar panels in several street lamps for switching automation.
Solar energy is also being used to supplement the shortfall in our electric grids whereby a sustainable model is being built and incorporated into our power supply outlay in the hinterlands and remote regions. “This will eventually cut down repair costs too,” Cabral said adding that the major cause for power interruption is fallen trees.
“It is a fact that Goa has around 70 per cent green cover and almost 34 per cent forests. Electric lines pass through such dense regions where trees fall on the lines all the time. We now face cyclonic winds too,” he pointed out.
In order to rope in renewable sources of energy, the government has also started the process of providing electric vehicles to its officials. North Goa Collector, secretary and director of Goa Energy Development Agency (GEDA) are among the 15 government officials who are presently using electric cars. “Over the next one to one and half year, we intend to bring about this change of vehicles from internal combustion engine to renewable energy engines or electric vehicles. Right now, owing to budgetary constraints, we have hired these vehicles instead of purchasing them outright,” Cabral disclosed.
The state government has tied up with Convergence Energy Services Limited (CESL), a unit of Energy Efficiency Services Ltd, to hire the vehicles, maintain the vehicles and provide drivers to operate these vehicles.
