Hydel Sector to get higher allocation
The latest policy on hydro power development framed by the Union Government has given a thrust to ensure exploitation of the hydro potential. The policy envisages benefits to investors such as normative level for incentives, simplification of procedures and further reassurances of return on investments.
Mr Yogendra Prasad, Chairman and Managing Director(CMD) of the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC), said as envisaged in the policy on hydro development, the Ministry of Power had taken several steps to accelerate hydropower development by higher budgetary allocation for the hydel sector, giving priority to languishing state sector projects and levy of 5 per cent development surcharge to suppllement resources for hydroelectric projects by the NHPC.
The policy laid a greater emphasis on the ideal hydro thermal mix, which should be in the ration of 40:60 . He said at present hydro share was below 25 per cent, which would become about 27 if 31,700 MW of hydro power were added by 2012.
He said hydro power was renewable, economic, non-polluting and an environmentally benign source of energy having inherent ability for instantaneous starting, stopping, load variation and reliable power system as compared to the unsatisfactory system conditions prevailing especially in the eastern and western regions having predominance of thermal power.
Power demand projections made in the 16th electric power survey would require a need-based capacity addition of 55,000 MW and 52,000 MW of power during the forthcoming 10th and 11th plans, respectively, adding that the hydro power development would need a further boost in order to bridge the gap between demand and supply.
The Central Electricity Authority (CEA) had prepared a vision paper on development of hydro-electric potential in India by 2025-26 which envisaged harnessing of the entire balance hydro power potential of India by the year 2025-26. He said during the 10th and 11th plans, the vision paper envisaged a hydro capacity addition of 10,400 MW and 21,300 MW, respectively. He said the likely requirement of funds for this capacity addition would be of the order of Rs 1,300 billion.
In terms of hydro power potential, India ranked fifth in the world at 600 billion kilowatt hours of energy annually, equivalent to a nameplate capacity of 1,50,000 MW approximately out of which only 17 per cent had so far been developed.
The total installed capacity of power in the country is 1,02,907 MW, out of which 25,574 MW was that of hydro power.
The most underdeveloped regions are northern and north-eastern where only 15.22 per cent and 1.22 per cent of hydro potential had so far been developed. The State of Arunachal Pradesh has a hydro power potential of 50,300 MW out of which only 10.50 MW were in operation, 405 MW under construction leaving a sizeable chunk still to be developed.
The other states with large untapped hydro potential are Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir where the balance hydro potential was of the order of 12,000 to 13,000 MW in each state.
He said the Union Ministry of Power was further concentrating on basin-wise development of hydro power, getting ranking study done by the CEA for all the balance hydro sites with an aim to prioritise the remaining hydro power projects and optionally utilise them over the next few decades. For the Central sector projects, three-stage clearance procedure had been introduced with the objective of reducing the time and cost overrun, he added.
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