December 02, 2008

Power ministry to push for storage based hydro power projects

BS reported that Union power ministry is planning to give priority to storage based hydel power projects that involve building of dams instead of run of the river projects which harness the flow of the water to produce power for faster capacity addition to meet the growing energy needs of India.

Mr Anil Razdan union power secretary of India in a conference held by an industry body in New Delhi said that "Storage hydro projects are the way forward to achieve sustainable development of energy. There should be a greater emphasis on tapping the potential of storage hydro projects rather than run of the river projects."

Mr Razdan said that even run of the river projects that are commissioned are facing problems like silting which result in stalling of power generating equipment. For example, Teesta power project in Sikkim was not operational for one month because of high levels of silting in the water.

He added that run of the river projects have a limited scope of operation and generally lead to agitations by the local population due to gradual drying up of the water bed citing the Bhagirathi Bachao Andalon and urging the states to take required steps for the promotion of storage projects.

Industry expert said that "In storage projects, there is a better management of resources which facilitates the diversification of water resource to other purposes also like irrigation and drinking water supply."