Thaindian News

By Vishal Gulati
Shimla, May 7 (IANS) Melting glaciers and adequate rainfall have made Himachal Pradesh a “power-full” state again.

Officials here Friday said hydroelectric power from all state-run projects had reached the optimum level, generating 85 lakh units per day.

“The hydropower generation in all the 21 run-of-river projects with a generation capacity of 467 MW yesterday (Thursday) reached optimum level, with the production of 85 lakh units. Now, the daily generation would remain around 85 lakh units in the next few months due to sufficient flow of water in the rivers,” Suneel Grover, director at the state electricity board, told IANS.

Hydroelectric power generation in Himachal increases in summer, whereas it comes down to just 20 percent during winter (from December to March) due to the freezing of glaciers and water bodies.

Besides the state-run projects, there are 13 major hydropower plants that are run either by the central government, private players or joint venture companies. All these are operating at full capacity now.

N.C. Bansal, General Manager (Project) of the Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam that owns the 1,500 MW Nathpa-Jhakri project in Kinnaur district, said generation at the plant had increased to 300 lakh units per day these days against 200 lakh units last week.

He attributed the increase in power generation to the increased flow in the Satluj river.

“The river discharge is between 350 and 400 cubic metres per second against 50 to 60 cubic metres a second in January-February,” Bansal said, adding that “in the next few days, the generation is expected to touch 360 lakh units a day”.

Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh buy power from the Nathpa-Jhakri project.

The electricity board also supplies power to Punjab, Haryana and Delhi.

The board receives electricity from Punjab, Haryana and Delhi during winter under the “banking” arrangements and returns the power in summer when its own generation peaks.

“From June 15, the board will start returning the borrowed power to Punjab, Haryana and Delhi as per their requirement,” Grover said.

The three states had provided 400 lakh units to the board last winter (December to March-end).

Himachal Pradesh has abundant water resources with a power potential of about 23,000 MW. About 6,480 MW have been harnessed till now by the central and state governments, private players and joint venture companies.

In the coming fiscal, the state government proposes to add more than 600 MW with the commissioning of Allain Duhangan, Malana II, Budhil, Chamera III and some other small projects.

Currently, 13 hydropower projects in the state sector, six in central and joint sector and 19 in the private sector with a combined generation capacity of 5,809.1 MW are being executed.