Goa Govt undertakes ambitious growth plan to meet power deficit

Panaji, May 17 (UNI) The Goa government has undertaken a 10-year ambitious growth plan to meet the increasing requirement of power in the state which, according to Central Electricity Authority, needs about 400 megawatt by next year.

Disclosing this during an interactive session with an array of consumers under the aegis of the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) here today, State Power Minister Digambar Kamat said the industry should come out with their future projected planned power requirements so that the government could undertake development of suitable infrastructure on time.

''We are very keen that the future demand of the power potential is met even as the government is sparing no effort to stake claim for additional power allocation from all central sector units including Kaiga atomic power plant in neighbouring Karnataka,'' he said.

He said the government was examining the recommendations of the Central Power Research Institute (CPRI), which was commissioned to study the harmonics (transmission and power distribution system and various other aspects) for supply of uninterrupted quality power to the consumers.

Once the recommendations were accepted, he said, the government would concede the demand of the industries to get refund of the penalties it paid for drawing excess power during peak period, as voiced by the industrialists during the interaction.

The department, the Minister said, was experiencing set back that it could not provide transformers and digital metres for various types of consumers on time with the suppliers limited in the country even as the demand was jacking up.

The government was also negotiating with the Reliance Energy Ltd (REL) for taking over supply of power to the industrial consumers of the state electricity department which was forced to resort to load shedding in peak time periods for want of adequate power supply from the grid.

''The situation is beyond our control to meet the growing demand in peak time with two of the units at Korba in Chattisgarh shut down for want of mainteinance one after the other,'' Mr Kamat said.

Replying to a volley of complaints of different consumers, the Minister said frequent breakdowns in the coastal belt could be prevented once underground cabling was completed so that the booming tourism industry would not suffer.

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