Dimapur, Sep. 13 (EMN): Tovihoto Ayemi, the advisor to Power department, has asserted the need for North Eastern Regional Power Committee (NERPC) to do more towards solving issues affecting the Power sector in Northeast.
According to a press release from the department on Friday, Ayemi shared this view during the 20th North Eastern Regional Power Committee (NERPC) meeting at Guwahati in Assam on September 12.
“In the meeting he had mentioned that it is time that all north-eastern states must realise Power is the engine of growth of any developing economy and that no major economic activity can sustain without adequate and reliable Power. He also emphasised that all respective north-eastern states have to turn around the Power sector in the shortest possible time by introducing the latest state-of-the-art technologies to modernise the Power system to achieve the goal of 24×7 power for all and also improve the overall efficiency of power system.
“He exhorted the gathering by saying that electricity like any other infrastructure has overriding declared social responsibilities and obligations; and there is a need to provide electricity at an affordable cost. While appreciating the role of NERPC in coordinating activities like system planning, system operation, scheduling and drawal of Power, generation schedule, resolving commercial issues etc., he felt that NERPC should stretch its hand a little bit more to be truly a spokesman for resolving these issues,” read the statement.
In particular, it stated, Ayemi raised two ‘very important issues’ confronting the state of Nagaland and all other Northeast states, which were “well accepted by the forum and the NERPC had agreed to take up the matter with the Union Ministry of Power and Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC).”
The first issue was regarding the Deviation Settlement Mechanism (DSM) regulation wherein the fourth Amendment regime was made effective from January 2019 resulting in huge financial burden in the form of DSM payables affecting the financial health of small states like Nagaland, it informed.
“After raising the matter earlier, the CERC had realised our problems and to some extent the matter has now been partially relaxed through the latest fifth Amendment but this is not sufficient as the fifth Amendment was made effective only from June 3, 2019 and thus the financial burden from January 2019 to June 2019 still remain unresolved,” it stated.
The second issue Ayemi raised was the need to set up a reliable and robust communication and telemetry system in the north-eastern region for facilitating optimum scheduling and dispatch of electricity within the state; monitor grid operations; keep accounts of the quantity of electricity transmitted through the state grid; exercise supervision and control over intra-state transmission system; and carry out real time operations of grid in accordance with Grid Standards and the State Grid Code.
“Both these issues raised during the meeting had gone well with all the north-eastern states and unanimous decision was taken by NERPC to raise the matter immediately with Union Ministry of Power and CERC,” it stated.
Ayemi was accompanied by the principal secretary of Power department, chief engineer (T&G) and other officials from the department.
