PATNA: The state government aims at 24X7 power supply in all the villages in Bihar by 2022, energy minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav said on Wednesday. But, he said, it would be possible only with the renewable energy sources like solar power.
“The state government has come a long way in ensuring electrification in all the villages with 18-20 hours of power supply across the state. It is a big achievement,” he said.
Addressing a national conference on ‘Energising Bihar: Addressing Assess and Energy Security Challenges’ organized by Centre for Environment and Energy Development (CEED) in partnership with Bihar Industries Association (BIA) and Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation (SSEF), Yadav said the government came up with a renewable energy policy last year. It is all-inclusive and covers all the major thrust areas related to renewable energy and its application.
“The state government will announce the implementation guidelines for the mini-grid sector as well as solar rooftop sector as these are the key priority areas of the government. The departments concerned are working towards framing guidelines, which will be announced for public feedback. We are confident that the effective implementation of the policy will result in tremendous job and livelihood opportunities in the state,” the minister said.
CEED’s chief executive officer Rampati Kumar said demand for electricity was growing exponentially. “Key thrust areas have been identified under the policy that includes solar rooftop and mini-grids. There is a need for guidelines to ensure the policy’s effective implementation,” he said and urged the state government to speed up the process of framing implementation guidelines to galvanize the rural economy as well as address the growing energy demand in urban areas.
Bihar Renewable Energy Development Agency (BREDA) director R Lakshmanan highlighted the obstacles in making Bihar an energy-secure state. “We have been supporting various initiatives to promote and safeguard the policy and are committed to establishing an atmosphere where decentralized grid-connected, renewable energy projects can be easily set up. We also intend to bring about sizeable improvement in providing energy access through decentralized renewable energy (DRE) systems in agricultural, industrial, commercial and domestic sectors.”
The daylong conference had two technical sessions. The first session focused on identifying the challenges and opportunities that come in the way of scaling up solar rooftop in the cities of Bihar. The second technical session focused on the role of mini-grids in the changing landscape of rural electrification.
Source: timesofindia.indiatimes
