Meghalaya power minister James K Sangma on Friday said the state government resorted to load-shedding with effect from midnight on April 24.
The power minister in a tweet on Friday said the load-shedding has been necessitated due to the “shortage of power caused by the maintenance shutdown of 1 unit of the OTPC Palatana Power Station and delayed monsoons in Meghalaya resulting in a shortfall of 2-2.5 MU per day”.
Saying that they are trying to resolve the issue, power minister Sangma said: “We sincerely regret the inconvenience caused to the public of Meghalaya. All efforts are being made to try to resolve this issue.”
Due to the shortage of power caused by the maintenance shutdown of 1 unit of the OTPC Palatana Power Station and delayed monsoons in Meghalaya resulting in a shortfall of 2-2.5 MU per day, we are having to resort to load shedding commencing from midnight tonight.
— James Sangma (@JamesSangma1) April 23, 2021
The decision on state-wide load-shedding was taken during a meeting on April 22 under the chairmanship by Meghalaya chief minister Conrad K Sangma.
In a public notice issued on Friday, the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) said: “In pursuance to the decision taken during the high-level meeting chaired by the Chief Minister on the power crisis on April 22 2021, the state-wide load shedding schedule is hereby published for kind information of all our esteemed consumers.”
The load-shedding will commence from midnight on April 24 and will remain effective until further orders.
“This schedule will become effective from 00.00 hours of April 24, 2021 and will remain in place till further orders from the state government,” the notice said.
According to the order, the load-shedding will affect whole Garo Hills & Ri-bhoi public areas from midnight of April 24 to 3 am while load-shedding will affect Khasi Hills including Shillong from 3 am to 6 am.
Lumshnong industries & Jaintia public areas will be affected from 6 am to 9 pm while Lumshnong industries will be affected from 9 am to 2 pm while Lumshnong industries & Byrnihat Industries will be affected from 2 pm to 4 pm and the Byrnihat Industries will be affected from 4 pm to the midnight.