The Power Department has not instituted any load shedding this year and is hopeful of not having to introduce any, so long as the monsoon rains arrive on time.
However, Shillongites have been facing random and lengthy power cuts over the last few days, sometimes going for hours on end at any time of day, which is proving to be highly disruptive, even worse than load shedding that is at least according to a fixed schedule.
These random shutdowns are difficult to prevent, Power Minister Abu Taher Mondal said today, as they are caused due to a variety of reasons, such as lightning strikes, lines snapping, transformers catching fire, trees falling on live wires, all of which require repairs.
Mondal said that in many places the lines pass through dense forests and many localities have trees whose branches might fall on power lines, especially during heavy rains or in strong winds.
Last year, Meghalaya suffered through extensive load shedding, of up to 10 hours per day in Shillong and Tura and even longer in other parts.
“Let us try to work out and avoid load shedding as far as possible,” Mondal said. “If we are not sufficient we will go for load shedding.”
Informing that the first target was to see that this time all the board exams should pass without any interruption, he said, “We are happy to say that we have done that and we also wanted to see that during elections there is no load shedding and we have done that as well.”
Meghalaya relies, for its own production of electricity, on hydro power and a timely and strong monsoon will help the Power Department continue to avoid load shedding.
“This year like last year the rains are delayed and we are hoping they should come in a couple of weeks. If that is the case then, hopefully, we will not go for any load shedding,” the minister said.
