To provide twenty four hour power supply in the State, it was important to ensure use of latest technologies and modernise the grid to make it more reliable and efficient, Himachal Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur said on Thursday.
Addressing the workshop of Institution of Engineers (India) Himachal Pradesh State Centre and NSDF in collaboration with GE T&D India Ltd. on ‘Modernising Himachal Grid’ here, Thakur said the centre was playing a major role in up-skilling and re-skilling of the engineers of the region.
He said that nature has blessed the State with immense power potential and out of the total 45,000 MW potential harnessed till date, the contribution of Himachal Pradesh was about 11000 MW.
Thakur said the GE T&D India Limited along with HPPTCL and HPSEBL was executing projects worth Rs. 515 crore to modernise the State’s Grid Infrastructures. Some of the key projects include Gas Insulated Substation at Wangtoo, Gumma, Urni, Dehan, Barsaine and Hatkoti, he added. He said that once the projects were completed these projects would serve the State’s growing demand and feed into the national grid through interstate power transmission projects.
He said that latest Smart Grid Technology would enormously help in more efficient transmission of power, quicker restoration of electricity and in reducing operations and management costs and would ultimately help in lowering the power cost for the consumers.
The Chief Minister also laid stress on upgrading transmission lines in the state for ensuring minimum transmission losses, adding that the state government was ensuring that upcoming power projects causes minimum damages to the environment.
Chairman National Skill Development Forum Sunil Grover said that the main objective of the Institution of Engineers (India) Himachal Centre was to bring together the technocrats on a common platform to upgrade their skills by sharing their knowledge. He said that the efforts were being made by the Centre for Skill upgradation of the youth of the State, besides re-Skilling of the Engineers.