A view of the Kohima town at night. According to the Nagaland SDG 2030, Dimapur, Kohima, and Chümoukedima are the most load intensive towns in the state, almost amounting to 80 percent of the overall state demand. These three towns also attribute the largest commercial losses in terms of billing deficiencies and revenue collections. (Morung Photo)
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100% households using clean cooking fuel by 2030
Our Correspondent
Kohima | August 25
The Nagaland Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Vision 2030 in its Goal-7 on ‘Affordable and Clean Energy’ aims to provide universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy while substantially increasing the share of renewable energy by 2030.
Targets for 2030 include providing state-wise access to clean energy for all, increasing renewable energy share in total energy consumption, improving energy efficiency at the state level and 100 percent households using clean cooking fuel by 2030.
Challenges
While the state has set ambitious goals for 2030, the vision for affordable and clean energy has its share of challenges in the form of cost consideration, poor infrastructure and natural disasters, insufficient funding etc.
With solar energy being a focus area for Nagaland, a major challenge still remains as the solar power tariff is higher than the Average Pool Purchase Cost (APPC) and this creates a disincentive for investing in renewable energy sources like solar, as per the vision statement.
The cost differential on purchase of power and would escalate Aggregate Technical and Commercial (AT&C) loss of the DoPN as they have to fulfill Renewable Purchase Obligation (RPO) compliance, it added.
It also stated that poorly constructed and maintained roads lead to transportation bottlenecks.
“This coupled with prolonged monsoons and landslides sometimes may lead to delay in project completion. Since this is against the Ministry guidelines, many-a-times, funding for the project is discontinued,” it added.
For reaching the projected potential of 197 MW, the approximate cost is about Rs 15 crore per MW. Gap funding from MoDONER and/or MRNE through capital subsidy, for hydro power projects in specific are required.
Strategies for success
To fulfill increasing power demand, the strategies to be undertaken for success have also been listed under the goal.
Generation
At the current 10 per cent growth rate, the demand by Financial Year 2020/2021 at the state level will increase to 228.4 MW. By this period, the likely additional allocation from the customer grid supply to CGS (Hydro + Thermal sources) will be 85 MW and added capacity through own generation will only be 12.25 MW. This relates to availability of 239.68 MW resulting in a surplus of 11.28 MW, it stated.
By 2030, if all the hydro power potentials of the state are developed, the availability will increase to 799.43 MW against a projected demand of 538.55 MW. However, if an aggressive growth of 15 percent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) is considered, a shortfall of 33.16 MW and 160.40 MW by Financial Year 2020/2021 and Financial Year 2020/2030 respectively is expected.
In view of the uncertainty of development of state potential to meet the demand by 2030 at 15 percent CAGR, the state should be prepared to enter into short/medium/long term power purchase planning from UMPP (Ultra Mega Power Projects) belonging to both Independent Power Producers (IPP) and central sectors as envisaged with the National Power Policy, private developers should be allowed to invest and develop the state hydro potentials.
Transmission
There are three load centres in the state at 132 KV and 66 KV level- Dimapur, Kohima and Mokokchung from where power demand is transmitted across the state.
The existing intra-state transmission capacity at 132 KV and 66 KV level are 226.5 MVA and 230 MVA respectively capable of handling 205 MW of power demand.
Through the initiative of the state plan and the World Bank- funded North Eastern Region Power System Improvement Project (NERPSIP), the transmission capacity will be increased to 750.5 MVA by Financial Year 2020/2021, which will be adequate to meet the 15 per cent CAGR load demand at Mokokchung load centre. However, the load centres of Dimapur and Kohima will remain deficient.
Distribution
The existing distribution handling capacities at 33/11KV transformers and distribution transformers are 264.1 MVA and 354.97 MVA respectively.
By Financial Year 2020/2021 under the initiative of Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS), DDUGJY, Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana (RGGVY), and the World Bank funded NERPSIP, the handling capacities will rise to 591 MVA and 450.21 MVA respectively, falling short by 368.83 MVA against demand by 2030.
The consumers are progressively increasing at 5-6 per cent annually and will be around 5,44,017 by 2030.
“To ensure stable, uninterrupted and quality power supply, no distribution system should be uploaded beyond 60 percent of its handling capacity. If the demand exceeds beyond 60 per cent, then power outages due to overloading and burning of power/distribution transformers, snapping of conductors, low voltage problems, unscheduled load shedding, frequent replacement of fuses, technical losses etc., as is currently being experienced in Dimapur, Kohima and Chumukedima will occur,” it stated.
This is also the reason why the demand is restricted to 120 MW despite power availability of 142.43 (from CGS and own generation).
To effectively handle the demand by 2030, the existing overloaded power transformers, 33 KV and 11 KV feeders, distribution transformers and LT lines are to be upgraded in addition to the infrastructure to be added by the various ongoing and upcoming schemes.
By 2030, the Sub Transmission (33 KV and below) installed capacity should be at 850 MVA at 10 per recent CAGR or 1500 MVA at 15 per cent CAGR.
Dimapur, Kohima, and Chümoukedima are the most load intensive towns in the state, almost amounting to 80 percent of the overall state demand. These three towns also attribute the largest commercial losses in terms of billing deficiencies and revenue collections. Bulk of the potential growth in consumers by 2030 will be concentrated in these towns.
Manpower planning aided by suitable IT enablement will be critical to handle the growth in consumers.
It would also focus on feeder automation in order to automatically isolate faulty sections and restore power supply in healthy sections. The vision statement also stressed on creation of a robust telecom infrastructure with optical fiber utilizing power transmission lines across the state.
