The apex industry body ASSOCHAM has said that the recent disaster in Uttarakhand has shaken the confidence of investors in 199 ongoing hydro power projects in the State with an estimated potential of 14.4 GW, while 45 existing projects have suffered substantial losses.
“In Uttarakhand, small hydro power (SHP) stations are more vulnerable to natural calamities as their power channels are more prone to landslides/cloud bursting etc,” said ASSOCHAM president Rana Kapoor while releasing the “ASSOCHAM 10-point Strategy for Rehabilitating Hydro Power Sector in Uttarakhand”.
Kapoor said, “The Central Government needs to set up a separate cell in partnership with the State Government for overseeing the rehabilitation of affected hydro power projects in the state. The cell will ensure that there is no delinquency by any Government department in providing relief and concessions.”
The estimated capital cost of setting up a small hydro electricity plant ranges between Rs5.5 crore and Rs7.7 crore per one megawatt and the per unit (Rs/kwh) cost of hydro power generation was estimated between Rs3.54 and Rs5.96. It has also been perceived that the share of hydro electricity would fall from 14 per cent in 2012 to 11 per cent by 2030, adds the paper.
“As for the exploitation of the potential of this cheap source of energy, the country’s 149 GW estimated potential, capacities created so far account to only 32 per cent of it. A major part of the unexploited potential exists in Himalayan region and North-East. Therefore, it is imperative for the country to create capacities to harness hydro electricity potential in the Himalayan region that includes Uttarakhand State,” said the ASSOCHAM chief.
However, Kapoor said this requires the use of latest technologies that cause minimum damage to the ecology. Hydel projects require regular renovation and modernisation for optimal capacity utilization that involves using modern equipment like static excitation, microprocessors, data logger, and optical instruments.
Owing to the cloudburst and unprecedented high flood in Uttarakhand, various ancillary structures of the project like roads, residential and non-residential buildings got damaged as well. Most of the damaged plants can only commence power generation by March 2014.
He said as a first step towards formulating appropriate rehabilitation strategy, affected hydro power units need to be segregated into groups on the extent of damage suffered and the support required for the rehabilitation. The revival package must be phased and single window concept should be introduced.