State has seen demand for electricity in industrial sector skyrocket in last 7 yrs: Power department

Kolkata: The Bengal government has witnessed an unprecedented growth in the industrial consumption of electricity in the last seven years.

According to sources in the state Power department, there has been around 27.2 percent growth in the demand for electricity in the industrial sector, while the domestic consumption has gone up by 80.74 percent in the past seven years.

The figure shows that many commercial units, be it in the small or medium scale, have come up in the state, leading to an exponential increase in the revenue of the department. The department is ready with the infrastructure to supply uninterrupted power to more industries in the coming years.

For the first time in the country, the department is planning to come up with an 'Energy Action Plan' to explore unknown areas on how power can be generated from unconventional sources. In the solar energy sector, Bengal has seen a great deal of improvement ever since the Mamata Banerjee government came to

power.

But the biggest challenge for the Power department is putting the energy produced out of renewable sources into the grid. Unless the energy is supplied into the grid, the utilisation of power on a large scale cannot be possible.

"Sustainability is one of the big issues the government has been facing. The Power sector in the country is going to face a new challenge after the government of India declared during the Paris convention in 2015 that it would achieve 40 percent power generation through renewable sources by 2030. The Centre has announced reduction of emission up to 32 to 35 percent by 2030, compared to the standard in 2005. Bengal government has made unprecedented improvement in the renewable energy sector as well," a senior official of the state Power department said.

According to the official, around 71 Gigawatt of renewable energy has been produced in the state and the Power department has set a target of reaching 175 Gigawatt in the next two years. He also said that with the increase in the demand for power in the state, hundreds of sub-stations have been constructed in the past few years.

In the last one year, 10 new EHV substations have been constructed, while many 220 KV substations are also coming up. One of the main objectives is to provide uninterrupted power supply both to domestic users and the industries.

It may be mentioned here that the Bengal government has been exploring various avenues on producing electricity close to the standards found in European countries.

State Power minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay has stated on repeated occasions that his department is committed to supply the best quality of power and steps are being taken in this regard.