A more viable public-private partnership model will be drafted to replace that of the scrapped Kynshi 1 hydropower project, Power Minister Abu Taher Mondal informed today.
The electricity project was meant to generate 450 megawatts but has been delayed for years.
It was announced last year that the government had decided to cancel the memorandum of agreement (MoA) signed with Athena Power Pvt Ltd and the JayPee Group for the construction of Kynshi stage 1 and Kynshi stage 2 hydro projects. The project developers had expressed their inability to continue.
A new model will be more viable and the project resurrected, the government hopes.
The Power Minister AT Mondal was reacting to the proposal by Hynñiewtrep Youths’ Council (HYC) for the revival, and setting up of power projects such as Rangmaw Hydel Project, Kynshi Hydel Project (Stage 2), thermal power plant in South West Khasi Hills, and others.
Meghalaya relies completely on river power for its electricity generation but the amount actually produced can vary wildly between the rainy and dry seasons.
The existing Umiam hydro plant is also decades old and approaching the end of its life. Thermal projects could provide a more reliable quantity of electricity but would take many years to set up and come with their own environmental costs.
As far as a proposed 500MW thermal power project goes, the minister informed that NEEPCO is unwilling to follow through with it. There was also another 240MW project proposed with a private company but correspondence with the firm seems to have ended.
Apart from Umiam, other hydro projects in the state are run-of-the-river projects and they operate at full capacity during the rainy season. Meghalaya can produce up to 5 million units of power on some good days but only around 1 million units on less productive days.
