Hydro Electric Power Industry: A must for Manipur
- Part 1 -

N Shyamsundar Singh *

An overview of the Thoubal Multipurpose Project under construction :: Pix - TSE

Introduction: The state of Manipur lags far behind the other states of the country in terms of development and rate of growth of economy. The state is so far unable to contribute and share its resources meaningfully with other parts of country to earn substantial revenue. Rather, it continues to depend on the centre and other states for all sorts of essential commodities and other requisites including power.

This has resulted in inadvertent delay in making headway towards development front of all sectors. The priority sectors namely the education, healthcare, communication, media, and small industries have not so far been able to deliver the desired quantum of service because of want of adequate core infrastructure.

Electricity – An essential commodity: In this knowledge era, the competitive efficiency is not achievable without electricity and without competitive efficiency a better economic performance shall remain a distant dream. The socio-economic degradation shall however continue unabated as usual.

To-day, every individual, irrespective of age, class, clan and profession, has the right to demand his or her share of reliable power that is required for education, health care, career building and earning livelihood at affordable cost. Even at the time of death also, one may need electricity in place of firewood for one’s cremation. Thus, considering its great importance and significant indispensability, electricity is recognized as an essential commodity along with food, medicine etc.

Electricity – A constituent of core infrastructure: Being one of the key inputs for the scientific and technological activities involved in all sectors, electricity also play a dominant role in the process of development of economy of the state. With the intensive use of power in all walks of life, modern world is able to move faster towards a new horizon where both the space gap and the time gap get reduced to a minimal. In short, life without electricity is something unimaginable now. Thus, electricity is considered as a major constituent of core infrastructure besides road and water supply.

Electricity – An Industry: With the increase in the use of electricity for various domestic, scientific, industrial and business purposes, the demand for electricity has been increasing rapidly in both urban and rural areas across the country. This phenomenon has made Power Sector the largest of all the sectors. Thus, the production/generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity at a large scale for sale to different load centres of the country or abroad with the help of existing power market, have already assumed the role of a big industry.

The Electricity Industry is given importance so much so that scores of interested parties from private sector have been attracted to the power business soon after the economic liberalization is introduced in early nineties in India. The power market has also become an important conjunctive market with capital market. Recently the Government of India has also taken serious initiatives to review and amend the rules and regulations in its relevant policies and Acts with the primary objective to attract more promoters, investors and developers from within and outside the country. Hopefully, the modified norms shall facilitate sustainable development of the energy resources to a greater extent.

An Industry for Manipur: That Industry is the backbone of economy is always true for the simple reason that no major economic transformation has been possible without perceptible contributions made by the industrial sector. A couple of large scale industries shall be able to provide the requisite support for the subsidiary industries like sports industry, education industry, media industry etc. that play significant role in human resources development of the state.

Other industries like tourism industry, pharmaceutical industry etc for which Manipur has fairly enough potential may also be developed as a part and parcel of a major industry like Hydro Electric Plant. Thus the state of Manipur also needs to have the kind of industry that can prop up and transform the economy of the state meaningfully.

The basic component any industry needs first, is the availability of raw materials and its adequacy for consistent round the year production. The other prerequisites include core infrastructure like smooth connectivity, reliable power supply and water supply, use of state of the art technology, skilled and non skilled laborers and congenial environment.

Therefore, reconnaissance of the potent area is inevitable at the first instance in order to assess the potential in terms of the quality and the quantity of the raw materials available and establish the preliminary feasibility. The preliminary feasibility report shall provide the foundation for carrying out detailed investigation on other aspects vis-a-vis development of the specific industry. Financial implications, resource mobilization, demand pattern in the market, competitive price of the product in market, financial analysis & management and business plan etc. are the other vital considerations to be made and taken into account while establishing the techno -economic feasibility of the project.

Hydro Electric Power Industry for Manipur:

A detailed survey being carried out on various aspects and parameters shall definitely reveal that in the land locked state of Manipur, the prospect of having a successful material based industry of the desired magnitude is really grim. However, Mother Nature has gifted the state with huge power potential that is estimated at about 2,000 MW in its hilly rivers.

A part of the power so produced can be used for domestic consumption and the balance for selling to several load centres of the country or abroad with the help of the existing vast transmission network and the power market. The sale proceed shall form an integral part of the perceptible contributions to the economy of the state as done by a big industry.

The free power at the rate of 12 p.c. of the total generation (about 250MW) alone shall generate an annual revenue income of Rs.750 Cr at the present price level. For a revenue starved state like Manipur, this return is quite substantial and very encouraging. Therefore the bottom line is that for this hilly state where there is plenty of hydropower potential, electricity industry is the only industry which is technically and commercially viable and it only can support all economic, social and cultural limbs of the society.

For this kind of industry, the raw material is readily available in abundant quantity; it is Import independent; the generated power is evacuated through efficient & reliable transmission line; power market is readily available for sale of power; operation & maintenance problem is comparatively less; less man power is required for running & maintenance; have less human resources management problem and it is clean energy and eco-friendly too.

Climate Change & Thermal Power Plants:

About 70 p.c. of the total electricity generation of the country come from the thermal power plants which are operated on fossil fuels and natural gas. The remaining comes from Hydro Electric power plants, nuclear power plants and other renewable energy sources like Solar Energy & Wind Energy etc.

Meanwhile, it has been found that the known reserve of fossil fuels and natural gas in India is estimated to last for about 100 years or so, if the consumption is continued further at the present rate. The emerging situation will therefore have a direct impact on the energy security of next generations.

On the other side, since the beginning of the industrial revolution, mankind has been burning all kinds of hydrocarbons like coal, fuel oil and natural gas for the purpose of obtaining motive power, transport, electricity generation and a variety of other uses. All these processes released carbon dioxide in large quantities into the atmosphere.

On top of it, land use changes like large scale deforestation and subsequent burning of huge bio-mass in the name of urbanization and industrialisation etc. have also emitted substantial quantum of carbon dioxide. The increasing atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide allows most of the short wave Solar Energy to reach the surface of the earth but obstructs the release of long-wave heat energy back into space thereby trapping the heat in the atmosphere and causing global warming and hence the Climate Change. The phenomenon concerns one & all as it would affect the future of our planet, our children, our civilization and our existence.

The International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has already sounded the alarm and emphasized the immediate need for significant reduction in emission of Carbon Dioxide.

to be continued.....