Friday, 28 June 2024 | PNS | DEHRADUN
Chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami met the Union Power minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Thursday and requested that 500 MW of additional power should be permanently supplied to the State from the Central government’s thermal power plants. The CM who is meeting Union ministers on development issues of Uttarakhand for the past three days told Khattar that only hydropower is generated in the State and it constitutes 55 per cent of the State’s total energy mix. He said that only 11 per cent of the State’s energy mix is obtained from thermal power plants and the lack of base load capacity in the State is becoming a difficult challenge for the State’s energy security. Dhami said that in winters which are the lean period only 300-400 MW of power is obtained from the hydropower sources of the state which makes the situation of energy security even more serious. He said that construction of hydropower projects of about 4,800 MW capacity in the state is pending in various courts due to environmental reasons. It is creating a gap between demand and availability of power in the state that is constantly increasing.
The CM said that in the resource adequacy studies conducted this year by the Central Electricity Authority, it has been recommended that Uttarakhand should receive 1,200 MW of additional electricity from the thermal power plants in the energy mix by the year 2027-28. The CM told Khattar that the State government has set a target to double the economy of the state in the next five years. To achieve this target, the State’s infrastructure has to be expanded extensively which will result in a sharp increase in the demand for power in the near future.
Dhami said that the plea for permanent allocation of 500 MW additional power supply from thermal power plants to Uttarakhand should be accepted. It will reduce the gap between demand and availability of power, he said.
