Aizawl, Aug. 1: The power situation in Mizoram is limping back to normal after yesterday's blackout.
C.L. Thangliana, chief engineer of the power and electricity department of Mizoram, told The Telegraph that power had been restored but with restrictions on withdrawal from the northeastern grid.
"The frequency has not been stabilised and because of that we cannot draw more power," he said.
The limit has been set at 30MW for peak-hour demand. This is expected to continue till further notice.
When the northeastern gird collapsed yesterday at 1.01 pm, the state was drawing 37MW of power. What made matters worse was that the network handling 10.5MW of power generated by the state also tripped at that crucial moment. This meant power supply to even essential services like the All India Radio station here was disrupted.
Normally, the peak-hour demand is restricted at 80MW, Thangliana said.
Mizoram, which is not yet self-sufficient in power generation, gets a major part of its electricity from the central share that permits drawing 82MW from the grid, he said.
"But there is always a shortfall of 25 per cent to 30 per cent," Thangliana said. He attributed the high shortfall to problems of generation at the various sources.
Mizoram's peak-hour demand is 107MW. The state's generates about 40MW. The shortfall is covered through load-shedding everyday. Consumers can help by learning to conserve energy.
Thangliana denied allegations that the power department's load-shedding favoured the cities and affected rural and suburbs more. "Whatever we have is judiciously shared by all consumers in rural and urban areas," he said.
Thangliana said more projects were in the pipeline for generating 2,332MW of power, which would make the state self-sufficient in power.
However, wrangling over the high cost of land compensations for submergence areas has resulted in the delay in implementing at least two projects. According to official documents, the state gets 26.14MW of power from 22 diesel power stations in different parts of the state and 8.25MW of power from micro/mini hydel power stations.
