PANAJI
In a bid to clarify that the State’s Electricity Department does not cater primarily to the industrial units but to the domestic consumers, Power Minister Nilesh Cabral on Tuesday issued a white paper painting a clear picture of the growth of the electricity supply network in the State over the last decade.
He insisted that it is a wrong notion that the Mollem power line is only for the benefit of the industry and claimed that only 1,000 of the total number of trees which have been identified will be felled from the root for this project.
“15 lakh people want the 400 kv power line. If 10 to 20 people don’t want it, the project will not be stopped,” Cabral stated.
The Power Minister sought to highlight that the rise in power consumption even at domestic consumer level has been astounding. For instance, the white paper unveiled by Cabral shows that in the financial year 2010-11, a total of 3,71,228 domestic consumers drew 10,00,555 kw of power while the number of domestic consumers rose to 549385 by September 2020 who drew a whopping 18,00,894 kw of power.
“It is a wrong notion that domestic consumers are not increasing in Goa but only the industrial units are rising. I have shown that every year, there is an increase of minimum four to five per cent. Presently, the power consumption from April till September this year has touched 18,22,961 kw. In fact, the financial year 2017-18 saw a sudden rise of 18 per cent in this category,” the Power Minister sought to explain.
He further disclosed that the consumption of commercial consumers, a category that includes shops, offices and other small commercial establishments that draw low tension supply has risen from 270864 in 2010-11 to 4,35,465 kw till September 2020. The number of such consumers has also risen from 68851 in the financial year 2010-11 to 1,01,017 in September 2020.
Along the similar lines, industrial power consumption, a category that includes high tension commercial units, has risen from 3,36,765 kw drawn by 5,561 consumers in 2010-11 to 6,71,082 kw drawn by 6,691 consumers in September 2020.
Cabral pointed out that the rise in consumption has been supported appropriately with the expansion in infrastructure. For instance, the number as well as the length of 11 kv and 33 kv feeders, LT feeder pillars, the number of distribution transformers and substations have also increased over the last 10 years. The number of LT poles has also increased from 2,08,057 in 2010-11 to 2,84,888 in 2019-20.
“Historically, the load requirement for domestic consumers in Goa is more than double the load requirements of both commercial and industrial consumers put together,” the white paper states while anticipating a further rise in these numbers as well as the requirement of housing and agriculture connections.
