The Meghalaya Energy Corporation Ltd (MeECL) today officially announced that it has ended the latest round of load shedding that it had initiated late last month.
In actual fact the utility had ended load shedding on May 1 but, because of “teething problems”, declined to make it official.
In April the state had to revert to load shedding because of a shutdown to a power plant in Tripura that supplies Meghalaya with some of its electricity. This plant is still under maintenance.
Meghalaya’s own power generation is not able to meet demand. Despite pre-monsoon showers, the Chairman and Managing Director of MeECL, Arunkumar Kembhavi, said today that the state is only producing 60 megawatts of its stated capacity of 350MW. With NEEPCO also unable to fill the gap, the MeECL has approached independent power producers to help it plug the shortfall of between 60 and 80MW daily.
“During these difficult times, it is our committed responsibility to ensure reliable power supply for hospitals, storage of vaccines, oxygen plants, students preparing for online exams, professionals working from home and also for the general public, especially in Garo Hills, to provide succour from the sultry weather,” Kembhavi said.
