Drought hits hydel output

The government on Thursday said inadequate rainfall had led to hydro-electricity generation in the country slipping 2 per cent from the target, but added that it was not a cause for worry.

Of the targeted 586 billion units of power to be generated in the current fiscal, 14 per cent is to come from hydro-electric units. "Considering the rainfall trends and the predictions of the meteorological department, we do not expect a shortfall of over 5 per cent in the hydel sector. This will translate into an overall shortfall of 0.7 per cent this year," Power Secretary RV Shahi said at the Hydro Power Professionals meet on Friday.

Shahi said in order to meet contingencies like this the country needed to augment installed capacity in the power sector from the present 112,000 mega watt. "If we had larger capacity, then the ups and downs would have been more than made up and we would have been in a better situation to handle the situation," he said.

Power Minister PM Sayeed added that the shortfall would be met through increased supply from thermal power stations. He also said states were in the process of enacting legislation to check power theft and the theft level had decreased. "Eight states have already enacted laws and this will increase the supply of power to consumers," the minister told reporters on the sidelines of the function.

He said the government planned to almost treble India's hydel generation capacity to 77,000 mega watt in the next 10 years. India's current hydro-electricity generation capacity was only 27,000 mega watt.