Last year, the government had targeted hydel capacity addition of 840 MW but it managed to achieve only 140 MW.
This year, central sector NEEPCO aims at adding the highest capacity of 600 MW at Kameng Hydel Power project in Arunachal Pradesh. The government of Himachal Pradesh will be adding another 211 MW in the state. These would include three units of 33.33 MW by state government-owned BVPCL and three units of 37 MW by Himachal Pradesh Power CorporationNSE 0.60 % Ltd.
Three private sector companies are also scheduled to add around 379 MW. These are GMR’s Bajoli Holi project in Himachal Pradesh with a total capacity of 3x60 MW, L&T’s Singoli Bhatwari project in Uttarakhand with a total capacity of 2x33 MW and Sorang hydel project with a proposed capacity of 2x50 MW at Uttarakhand.
According to the schedule prepared by Central Electricity Authority, the country is likely to cross the 50 GW installed capacity mark this month if NEEPCO manages to commission its proposed unit 1 and 2 of the Kameng project. These are to have a generation capacity of 150 MW each and are scheduled to be commissioned this month. It is slated to start commercial operation in August.
During April and May, hydel projects generated 13% of the total power generated by conventional power generation capacity including thermal, nuclear and hydel.
Hydel generation achieved a near 38% growth in comparison to the previous corresponding period.
Last year, hydel power plants achieved a 7% year-on-year growth in power generation at 135 billion units. They contributed 10% of the total power generation for the year among conventional power generation sources.
At present, the largest hydel generation capacity is in north India at 19.7 GW followed by south at 11.77 GW. West India has a total installed capacity of around 7.55 GW followed by east at 4.94 GW.
