Uttarakhand CM Dhami calls on Manohar Lal Khattar, congratulates him on assuming charge as Union Minister

New Delhi [India], June 27 (ANI): Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami paid a courtesy call to Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar in New Delhi and wished him on assuming the charge of Union Minister, Housing and Urban Affairs and Union Minister of Energy.

The Chief Minister requested the Union Minister to approve the permanent allocation of 500 MW additional power supply from central thermal plants to the state of Uttarakhand.

The Chief Minister said, “In Uttarakhand, only hydroelectric power generation centres are available for power generation, as a result of which more than 55 per cent of the energy in the total energy mix of the state is obtained from hydroelectric power sources. Only 15 per cent of the energy in the state’s energy mix is obtained from coal-based plants. As a result, the lack of base load capacity in the state is becoming a difficult challenge for the energy security of the state.”

On average, only 300-400 MW of energy is obtained from the hydroelectric power sources of the state in winter, which makes the energy security situation more serious. The construction of hydroelectric projects of about 4800 MW capacity in the state is pending in various High Courts or at other levels mainly due to environmental reasons, due to which the gap between demand and availability of electricity in the state is continuously increasing due to the lack of development of hydropower available in the state.

The Chief Minister said that in the Resource Adequacy Studies conducted this year by the Central Electricity Authority, New Delhi, it has also been recommended to obtain 1200 MW additional electricity from coal-based thermal plants in the Energy Mix of Uttarakhand state by the year 2027-28.

The target is to double the economy of the state in the next five years. To achieve this goal, there is a need to increase the infrastructure of the state extensively, in which investment is being attracted mainly in the areas of industrialization, the service sector in which infrastructure related to tourism is the main, agriculture and forestry and education etc. in the state, as a result of which a sharp increase in the electricity demand is expected in future.

The Chief Minister requested the Union Minister to approve the permanent allocation of 500 MW additional power supply from Central Thermal Plants to the State of Uttarakhand to meet the base load requirements of the State and to reduce the gap between demand and availability of power.