the goan I network
PANAJI
Recently sworn-in Power Minister Nilesh Cabral has decided to play tough with the Electricity Department.
In addition to getting the army of engineers of the much maligned department to work out a plan for uninterrupted, 24x7 power supply, the Minister announced that in 45 days he will unveil a plan to “compensate” consumers who suffer unscheduled power disruptions and cuts.
Addressing a news conference on Wednesday, his first since taking over as Power Minister, Cabral with Chief Electrical Engineer Neelkant Reddy in tow, said he will make public within a month-and-a-half he will make public the plan to supply uninterrupted power to consumers with fixed deadlines to achieve the milestone area by area across the State.
Also, if power fails, a package to monetarily compensate consumers for every hour of shutdowns will be worked out and adjusted from current or future monthly power bills of the consumer, Cabral said.
This, however, is subject to the State’s wheeling of power from the national grid is trouble free. Goa receives around 550 megawatts from Northern Grid and 100 megawatts from Southern Grid but the power received from the aging Southern Grid is troublesome, Cabral said.
He none-the-less disclosed that the trouble drawing power from the Southern Grid will be overcome once the project to set up a new 400 KV receiving station at Dharbandora goes on-stream. Work order for the project has already been issued by the NTPC, he added.
Cabral said work to improve the intra-state grid is also being planned. Currently, the department is working out modalities to tender and commence work within the next two months on four smaller sub-stations located in strategic geographic locations in the State.
Meanwhile, the squall that hit the State on Saturday last, damaged power distribution equipment and conductors across Northern and eastern Goa, Cabral said. “Preliminary estimates of the loss suffered is around Rs 2 crores,” Cabral said, adding that engineers and line staff of the department worked round the clock even on the Gandhi Jayanti holiday to repair instra-state grid and restore power.
Only Colvale and Sanguem were still without power due to the damage and work is in progress to restore supply there, he said.
Cabral said, although damage to the grid has been estimated at Rs 2-crores, the losses suffered by the public because of the breakdowns cannot be estimated but that the department was helpless due to the natural calamity.
NO FAILURES
Power Minister said he will make public the plan to supply uninterrupted power to consumers with fixed deadlines to achieve the milestone area by area across the State.
COMPENSATION
If power fails, a package to monetarily compensate consumers for every hour of shut downs will be worked out and adjusted from current or future monthly power bills
HINDRANCE
This, however, is subject to the State’s wheeling of power from the national grid is trouble free. The power received from the aging Southern Grid is troublesome, Cabral says
HIGH HOPES
He disclosed that the trouble drawing power from the Southern Grid will be overcome once the project to set up a new 400 KV receiving station at Dharbandora goes on-stream
