Faced with widening gap between demand and supply and rising cost of energy production, Odisha urged experts in power sector to speed up technological research so that natural and renewable resources could be used for generation of clean energy. “Emergence of innovative micro-grid and smart-grid technologies has provided a perspective to modern power and energy system operations. There is need to examine the new applications and advanced technology”, Odisha’s energy minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak said Wednesday while inaugurating an International Conference on Energy, Automation and Signal in Bhubaneswar, capital of Odisha state, pti reported. Stating that the present need was for a sustainable and reliable supply of electricity to the consumers, Nayak said the concern today was about the quality of power even as the gap between demand and supply was increasing forcing the authorities to go for power rationing. While shortage of power in the country ranged between 13 and 20 per cent, Odisha was facing a nine per cent energy deficit. In such a scenario, the experts should advise the state as to what were the alternatives available, he said. Pointing out that Odisha was the first state in the country to go for restructuring of the power sector and privatization of the distribution of electricity, Nayak said the state hoped to add another 700 to 800 mw by 2013. “Odisha’s transmission and distribution loss, which stood at an unacceptable 51 per cent a few years ago, has been reduced to 38 per cent and we have to adopt new technology to overcome this problem,” he said adding the government had prepared a Vision Plan to be put in place by 2020 and was prepared to invest in areas of transmission and distribution.