NITI Aayog to make a report on stalled hydro power projects

February 1, 2016 Hot from the Oven Valli Sarvani No comments

NITI Aayog has been asked to make reports on the hydroelectric power projects which were not up to schedule by the Prime Minister’s Office. The government made these projects to provide continuous and uninterrupted electricity supply all over the country. The stalled projects have help up large scale investments.

The source also stated that NITI Aayog has been given a deadline of three months to make a report on the delays. According to a source, the government think tank was also asked to be included to find the reasons why projects are getting delayed and to make the report.

During the 12th Plan period, the proposed extra hydro capacity addition is 10,897MW. The actual current capacity addition is only 3651.02MW up to December 2015. This is only 33.5 per cent of the proposed capacity addition as per the data by Central Electricity Authority (CEA).

As of December 31, 2015, the total installed capacity of the country is 2,84,303.39MW. The large hydro capacity is 42,623.42 MW and the small hydro capacity is 4,147MW according to CEA data said.

The Hydro power projects in the country are divided in to two segments — small and large hydro.

The small hydro power projects are those projects with capacities of up to 25MW. When it comes to large hydro projects, the power ministry is responsible for handling them. On the other hand, the mandate for the subject small hydro power is given to ministry of new and renewable energy.

At present, the new target of India is to get 175GW of renewable energy capacity by the year 2022. This ambitious target will include 5GW of small hydro power.

It seems that hydro power generation has a lot of long term economic benefits for energy prices according to PWC’s Kameswara Rao. He adds that since India market is maturing to offer ancillary services apart from mainstream power sales, hydro power is even more beneficial.

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