Shillong, Nov 12: Power Minister AT Mondal, who attended the all India power ministers’ conference at New Delhi, has sought additional funds for Smart Meter under RDSS from Ministry of Power to avoid any adverse impact on consumers.
Mondal also wanted financial assistance from MNRE for small hydro power projects in the state.
The conference of the power ministers of all the states chaired by Union Power Minister was held at Yashobhoomi (IICC) New Delhi on Tuesday to discuss various issues related to progress of RDSS, implementation of Rights of Consumer Rules, PM Har Ghar Saurya Yojna, Resource Adequacy, Development of Pumped Storage projects and others.
The conference was attended by the power ministers and secretaries in-charge power of all the states. The conference was also attended by the CMDs of NTPC, NEEPCO, PGCIL and SJVNL, Secretary Ministry of Power, Secretary MNRE, Chairman CEA and CMD REC and PFC.
During the meeting the states apprised the progress on various fronts and also highlighted the key issues before the Union Power Minister.
Mondal informed the Union Power Minister that the discovered cost of Smart Meter is much higher than the sanctioned cost though the amount discovered is almost at par with other states in the North-East, since the sanctioned cost is much higher, he requested the Union Minister that the subsidy amount per meter may be increased as in absence of the same the burden of additional cost would either be passed on to the consumer or would be borne by the utility. This impact will defeat the overall purpose of the scheme.
Regarding the development of Pumped Storage Projects in Meghalaya, Mondal apprised that the state has received the proposal for development of pumped storage projects with a cumulative capacity of 4800 MW. Since, the tariff of these projects is likely to be very high he requested that the Ministry of Power to consider some kind of benefits in terms of free power to the state.
Further, on the issue related to the renewable energy, Mondal conveyed to the Union Minister that there are several small hydro projects for which the DPR has been completed and the development of these projects can be started immediately.
However, there is lack of funds in the state and requested MNRE to consider re-starting of the stopped Central Financial Assistance of Rs.7.5 crore/ MW for development of small hydro.projects so that smaller states like Meghalaya can benefit from it. Secretary MNRE informed that to discuss the specific issues related to Northeastern states a meeting would be held in Shillong on November 27 & 28.
