Hydel power development going slow

Despite the tall claims about augmenting hydroelectricity power generation, only 19.08 per cent of the country's hydel power potential has been developed at a load factor of 60 per cent. This is only about 16,031.85Mw of the 84,044 Mw potential that has been assessed.

"Around 7,585.65 Mw of this potential is under development," a government official told Business Standard.

During the 1980s, hydro generation increased at a rate of only 4.4 per cent compared with a growth rate of 11.6 per cent in thermal generation.

The maximum hydroelectric power generation to the tune of 5,971.23 Mw has been exploited in the southern region, followed by 5,217.82 Mw in the northern region.

"Around 2,961.52 Mw of power has been developed in the western region, followed by 1,364.28 Mw and 517 Mw in the eastern and the north-eastern region respectively," the official added.

The maximum potential of 31,857 Mw of hydrolectric power generation has been assessed in the north-eastern region, followed by 30,155 Mw in the northern region and 10,763 Mw, 5,679 Mw and 5,590 Mw in the southern, western and the eastern region, respectively.

"The maximum potential under development of 4,435.96 Mw is in the northern region, followed by 1,057.08 Mw in the north-eastern region. This is followed by the eastern region (813.89 Mw), western region (656.62 Mw) and the southern region (322.10 Mw)," the official added.

While the maximum potential of 26,756 Mw has been assessed in Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh has emerged as the top state for hydel power development, with 2,545.57 Mw being developed.

"Uttaranchal leads the race among the states for hydro power (under development) with a capacity of 1763.46 Mw being worked upon," the official said.