Hydroelectric Power Development in India

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Hydroelectric Power Development in India

Hydroelectric Power Development in India

  1. India is the 7th largest producer of hydroelectric power in the world.
  2. It was producing 114TWh of energy in the year 2008 which is about 3.5% of the world’s total hydroelectric power.
  3. Present installed capacity of hydroelectric power is 37367.4 MW as on 30 June 2011 which is about 21.5% of total power generation in India.
  4. India has hydropower potential of about 84000 MW at 60% load factor which can be economically exploited.
  5. It is equivalent to 600 thousand million kWh (TWh/year).
  6. Table A shows the river system and hydropower potential and possible number of schemes in India.
Table A : Hydroelectric potential in India

Sr. No.

Group of rivers

Hydropower Potential (MW)

Possible number of

1.

Brahamputra

34920

226

2.

Great Indus

19998

190

3.

Ganga

10715

142

4.

East flowing rivers in south India.

9532

140

5.

West flowing rivers in south India.

6149

94

6.

Rivers in central India

2740

53

 

Total

84044

845
  • Regionwise the total hydro power potential (84044 MW) is as follows :
North = 30155 MW, East = 5590 MW, South = 10763 MW, West = 5679 MW and North-East = 31857 MW.
  • Apart from above, India (As projected by MNES) has a potential of about 15000 MW of installed capacity from mini, micro and small Hydel power projects.
  • Fifty sites of pumped storage plants with total capacity of 94000 MW have been identified. Various Government agencies involved in development of hydro power are, NHPC, NEE PCO, THDC, State Electricity Boards (SEB’s) alongwith many agencies in private sector.
  • 12th Five Year Plan (2012-2017) has a target of about 30920 MW in Central, state and private sectors.
  • Statewise targets are indicated in Table B.
Table B : Total Target in 12th plan

Sr. No.

State

Capacity (MW)

Sr. No.

State

Capacity (MW)

1.

Andhra Pradesh

1560

9.

Manipur

1566

2.

Arunachal Pradesh

9579

10.

Meghalaya

504

3.

Assam

150

11.

Panjab

243

4.

Himachal Pradesh

2457

12.

Sikkim

2455

5.

Jammu and Kashmir

3923

13.

Tamil Nadu

500

6.

Karnataka

400

14.

Uttrakhand

6858

7.

Kerala

373

15.

West Bengal

186

8.

Madhya Pradesh

166

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Total

30920

Small Hydro Power (SHP) Development :

  • In the beginning of this century, we had SHP projects of 760 MW capacity.
  • A target of 3000 MW has been fixed for development of small hydro power projects in the 12th plan.
  • SHP projects have lower cost of equipment, higher reliability with lower gestation period.
  • Most of these projects are being developed in the private sector. Presently, they have total capacity of 1230 MW from 228 SHP projects.
  • MNRE is giving subsidy for development of SHP projects both to public and private sector. However, the subsidy is only released when the projects are tested to give atleast 80% of the expected power generation.
Problems associated with development of hydroelectric power :
  1. Long gestation period of about 10 years.
  2. Difficulty in getting environmental and forest clearances.
  3. Interstate disputes to share the benefits of hydropower.
  4. Requirement of high finances.
  5. Problems in land acquisition.
  6. Problem of getting both technical and unskilled labour.
  7. Other problems like difficult terrain, seismic activities in the region of development, poor infrastructure etc.
Though India has vast potential for hydel power but with ever increasing demand of power and decreasing availability of water due to population growth, the share of hydroelectric power will be less in the total demand in coming years.

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