The South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and People has been studying the generation performance of large hydroprojects across the country in general and in the Himalayan river basins in particular. Their recent studies of the Generation of Performance in the Chenab and Beas River Basins also show diminishing generation for the period of last 28 years. The detailed reports on three river basins Sutlej, Beas and Chenab (all of which have most of the projects situated in Himachal Pradesh) can be found at the following links
BEAS RIVER BASIN
Source : http://sandrp.wordpress.com/
CHENAB RIVER BASIN
Source:http://sandrp.wordpress.com/
SUTLEJ RIVER BASIN
http://sandrp.in/HEP_
According to SANDRP’s analysis:
– Of all the hydropower projects of India 89% of the projects generate at BELOW the design capacity. In fact 50% of the under-performing projects generate at below the 50% of design energy.
– When a project is given techno-economic clearance, it is based on promise that it will generate certain units of power at design level (at 90% dependability level). And yet no questions are asked, no accountability fixed, in fact such an analysis is not even done.
– This means that a lot of the projects that are being set up now are UNVIABLE projects.
In the current scenario of environmental crises unleashed in the Himalayan resion it become even more critical to thoroughly review the planned projects and put a pause on mindless hydropower development, especially if the projects are not being able to live upto the promises they make vis a vis generation of power.
Source: SANDRP
