PRESS RELEASE
Under the direction of Chief Minister P.S. Tamang, Power & Transport Minister M.N. Sherpa is attending the two day Conference of Power and Renewable Energy Ministers of States & U.Ts being held at Udaipur, Rajasthan on the 14-15th of October. He is accompanied by the PCE cum Secretary, Power Department, Ganesh Chettri and Chief Engineer Jigmey Namgyal. The conference is chaired by R.K. Singh, Union Minister of Power & MNRE, Bhagwant Khurba, Union Minister of State for New & Renewable Energy and Kishan Pal, Minister of State Power and attended by Power Ministers and senior officers from all the states and U.Ts including Devendra Fadnavis, Deputy Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Manish Sisodia, Deputy Chief Minister of Delhi and Preston Tymsong, Deputy Chief Minister of Meghalaya along with Alok Kumar, Secretary Ministry of Power, Indu Shekhar Chaturvedi, Secretary MNRE and Heads of NTPC, REC and PFC.
The main agenda of discussion during the conference was; viability of Discom’s and formulating SOP to improve their performance, the implementation of nationwide prepaid smart metering as the first step towards the transformation of power sector, the roadmap ahead to achieve 500 GW of installed electricity capacity from non fossil sources by 2030, development of Power system to ensure 24×7 power supply, reduction of AT&C losses to 12.5% and bringing ACS-ARR gap to zero through timely investment and overall Power sector reforms.
During the course of the first day session, M.N.Sherpa highlighted the significant improvement in the states power sector performance in reducing the AT&C loss and ACS-ARR gap, improving billing and collection efficiency through various proactive steps initiated under the leadership of Chief Minister, P.S. Tamang and the top priority given by the present state government to ensure reliable and quality power supply to its consumers.
He however conveyed the existing hurdles and constraints faced as a result of the ageing infrastructure, difficult terrain handicap and vast forest cover through which most of the transmission and distribution lines pass through thereby resulting in frequent outages. He therefore, while thanking the central government for the financial allocation to Sikkim under Reform based Revamped Distribution Sector Scheme (RDSS), fervently requested for increase in the allocated amount to help the state government fully strengthen and augment the existing T&D infrastructure so as to successfully achieve the objectives of ensuring 24×7 power supply and reducing the AT&C loss and ACS-ARR gap as envisioned under the RDSS manifesto.
The issue of high rate of interest on the loans inherited from the previous government for setting of Hydel projects in Sikkim was also raised by him and earnestly requested for reduction to prevailing nationalised banks interest rates. MN Sherpa also stressed on the huge potential of developing small hydro projects and requested for support of MNRE to provide central financial support for development of Small Hydro Power Project (SHP) upto 25 MW and also for renovation of existing SHP projects under State sector, which will help in overall development of the State Hydro Power Sector.
He also reminded the Union Minister about notifying Jorethang as a Solar City but having received no financial support from the centre till date. R.K. Singh while giving a patient hearing, assured his full support to address all the issues raised by our Minister.