Per capita consumption of power lowest in India: KC Venugopal

Union Minister of State for Power KC Venugopal Saturday said that the per capita consumption of power in the country was the lowest when compared to other countries.

Addressing a conference on opportunities in power sector in Shillong, Venugopal said the Centre proposed to improve the per capita consumption of power above 1000 units.

He however, said that this would go a long way even to reach the world average.

The minister also said that the north-eastern region has been blessed with rich hydro-power potential of more than 58,000 MW, equivalent to about 40 per cent of untapped hydro potential in the country.

Venugopral said that since more than 75 per cent of power is generated from coal and gas based stations, the development of hydro potential would be very important.

"Meghalaya is blessed with coal reserves, Tripura and Assam form good abodes of natural gas reserves," Venegopal said, adding that it could be effectively tapped these resources.

The region is rich in power potential, but the execution of hydro project has always been a difficult task, he said.

This is due to the geological surprises which is one of the major challenges faced by many of the hydro projects, especially in the Himalayan region.

"There are also other general issues affecting hydro execution like forest clearance and land acquisition delays," Venegopal said and expressed the need to discussion the issues in detail to chalk out sustainable solutions.