Tripura's Power Minister envisions Northeast India as power hub, highlights surplus power potential

Tripura's Power Minister, Ratan Lal Nath, expressed his vision for the Northeast Region to become the Power Hub of India, highlighting the surplus power potential of four states in the region. 

Power Minister Nath on June 28 attended the 24th Northeast Region Power Committee Meeting at Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh.

“In the NE Region, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, and Assam are power surplus states and effort should be to tap this power potential, export power through the state of art evacuation infrastructure, and venture into the new frontiers of power storage to make NER as the Power Hub of India”, said power minister.

He further said that adequate system strengthening would be required in the NER constituent States in order to build up congestion-free transmission corridors and robust transmission systems for the evacuation of this power. 

“As such, continual effort should be put into the development of transmission systems in the NER States simultaneously for adequate power evacuation through intra and inter-state grids. This is an opportunity to propose future Power System Strengthening Projects for the entire North Eastern Region to the Ministry of Power, Government of India for funding under the Power System Development Fund (PSDF),” he added.

He further said that the Scheduling, Metering, Accounting, and Settlement of Transactions in Electricity (SAMAST) Scheme sanctioned by the Government of India for the NE states is presently under implementation in Tripura and was introduced with the aim of achieving an efficient mechanism for the proper scheduling to the settlement of electricity transactions in a transparent manner for the power transactions across intra-state boundaries.

Nath also informed that the government of Tripura has signed an agreement with Asian Development Bank (ADB) amounting to Rs 2,275 crore to strengthen and improve power distribution and generation efficiency in the state. 

“North East Region Power System Improvement Project (NERPSIP) being funded by the Government of India and the World Bank is one major infrastructure development programme which is being implemented and now is on the verge of completion and is sure to benefit North Eastern Region as a whole. I am certain that the Implementing Agency, Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL) shall expedite the remaining works and complete the Project very soon”, he said.

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