Meghalaya chief minister Conrad K. Sangma on Thursday discussed about measures and initiatives to improve the power scenario in the state and action plans to reduce aggregate technical and commercial (AT&C) losses.
Meghalaya chief minister Conrad Sangma chaired a review meeting of the Meghalaya Energy Corporation Limited (MeECL) at the corporation’s headquarters in Shillong’s Lumjingshai.
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The meeting was also attended by Meghalaya power minister James K. Sangma and other officials of the power department besides the chairman and engineers of the MeECL.
Besides AT&C losses, the other issues discussed in the meeting included the status of power schemes like Saubhagya, normal technical losses, aging lines and transformers, overloading of lines and distribution of transformers.
The meeting also discussed reduction in the ratio of high tension lines to low tension lines (due to extensive implementation of rural electrification), commercial loss due to poor billing efficiency and collection from consumers, power theft, and non-adherence to billing cycle.
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The chief minister stressed on adopting action plans to reduce AT&C losses, renovation of existing network by strengthening through various schemes, capacity augmentation of lines and sub-stations, IT-enabled web based application and billing software, use of pre-paid meter and vigilant activities and introduce better technical solutions for renewable energy.
According to the Meghalaya chief minister, the meeting was fruitful and the discussions touched all aspects from the current financial position of the MeECL to challenges it faced.
“We also discussed the issue related to load shedding and the overall efficiency of the MeECL as a corporation. Different power projects of the state including smaller hydro power projects and the aspect of renewable energy were taken up during the meeting,” the chief minister said.
He informed that such review meetings would be held at his level periodically to improve the productivity of MeECL and ensure that the corporation becomes financially stable to provide stable and uninterrupted power supply to all citizens of the state.
The MeECL was also asked to create awareness on energy saving and using of energy efficiency technology like LED lighting, solar lighting.