NEW DELHI: As the rest of India
struggles to meet perennial power shortages, the tiny Himalayan State of Sikkim
has taken steps to emerge surplus in power by the next year with the execution
of Teesta Urja cascade projects.
Work is in rapid progress at
Teesta-III, part of the Teesta Urja’s six-stage cascade projects. The 1200 MW
Teesta-III is the largest of the six and it will not only give power virtually
free to Sikkim but supply electricity to northern and eastern states which reel
under chronic power shortages, particularly during the summer when the
consumption is also at its peak.
Sikkim which is endowed with
vast hydro power potential and Teesta is the main river stream in Sikkim and
its potential is being harnessed through a cascade of six Hydro projects.
Setting an example for Hydro
Power generation capability of India, the Teesta Project was conceived as part
of cascade development of river Teesta by CWC in 1974. An SPV called “Teesta
Urja Limited” was formed in April 2005 and Implementation agreement signed with
the Sikkim Government in July 2005.
The project received all
statuary clearances in Record time. The
construction is being executed under EPC by a consortium led by M/s Navayuga
Engineering Company Ltd.
As much as 99.2% of
Tunneling Works was already completed (around 34.4 Km out of total 34.6 Km). The
Excavation of 13.824 Km of Head Race Tunnel is also complete.
Power produced to be
transmitted till Kishenganj through 400 KV DC line to be constructed by Teesta
valley Power Transmission, a JV between Teesta Urja Ltd
and Power grid Corporation
of India Limited (PGCIL). PGCIL is to wheel the power to the beneficiary states
in the northern region beyond Kishenganj.
The positive news about the
progress of Teesta-III comes as a big relief to the people of Sikkim who are
bracing themselves to pay higher tariff.
Power Secretary Mr AK Giri recently
said that the state currently is procuring electricity from NTPC and thermal
power is subject to vagaries of coal supply and prices. As such the price per
unit Rs 3 will be applicable from this month itself, Mr Giri said.
Thus, Teesta-III will bring
much-needed relief to Sikkim and power tariff hike will be part of history next
year.
The success of Teesta also
stands out as a shining example as many of the other hydel projects are not
making much progress in north or north-eastern States.
Meanwhile, a World Bank
report notes that severe power shortage is one of the greatest obstacles to
India’s development, says a World Bank report. Over 40 percent of the country’s
people -- most living in the rural areas -- do not have access to electricity
and one-third of Indian businesses cite expensive and unreliable power as one
of their main business constraints, it says.
Poor electricity supply thus
stifles economic growth by increasing the costs of doing business in India,
reducing productivity, and hampering the development of industry and commerce
which are the major creators of employment in the country, it says.
With the issues like
irregular coal supply, volatile price fluctuation and increasing pollution
hazards casting uncertainty over thermal projects, hydro power clearly stands
out as one of the best suited alternatives.
Power sector analysts say
hydro power projects are zero pollutant, as compared to thermal projects which
reportedly contribute to half of global carbon emissions and India relies on
thermal power to the extent of 60% of its consumption today. Even the cost of
raw material – water – is nil.
According to a latest report
by HSBC Global Research increasing hydro power generation capacity would help
in strengthening India's energy security.
"Given India's tight
domestic coal supply and increasing reliance on imported coal, hydro capacity
provides the country with greater energy security,” the report says.
Estimates are that India
harnesses just about 25% to 30% of the hydro power capacity and give the Nation
is blessed with a bounty of water resources, much of it goes literally down the
drain.
In a written reply to a
question in Lok Sabha, the Minister of State for Power Mr K.C. Venugopal said
out of the identified capacity, 33320.8 MW i.e. 22.93% has so far been
developed and another 15130 MW i.e.10.41% of is under development. He said that
about 66.66% of the identified potential is yet to be developed
The World Bank acknowledges
that the Indian power sector has made significant improvements in the
maintenance and operation of its existing power systems. However, there is a
limit to how much benefit in terms of additional power can be had from just
these improvements. With the demand for electricity continuing to rise, the
country needs also to look to additional and efficient generation.
The Government of India has
decided to acquire an increasing portion of this additional power from the
country’s vast untapped hydropower resources, only 23 percent of which has been
harnessed so far. India’s energy portfolio today depends heavily on coal-based
thermal energy, with hydropower accounting for only 26 percent of total power
generation. The Government of India has set the target for India’s optimum
power system mix at 40 percent from hydropower and 60 percent from other
sources, the World Bank notes.
Advantages
of hydropower:
As World Bank says, Hydropower
plants can also start up and shut down quickly and economically, giving the
network operator the vital flexibility to respond to wide fluctuations in
demand across seasons and at different times of the day. This flexibility is
particularly important in a highly-populated country like India where household
electricity demand is a significant portion of total demand and this demand in
concentrated in a short period of time (usually in the evening).
As
an illustration, if the approximately 150 million households in India were to
turn on two 100 watt light bulbs at 7 pm, the power system would experience an
instantaneous surge in demand of about 30,000 MW!
Today, this peak demand is
often met by households turning on small gasolene and diesel generation units,
which, in addition to being polluting, are a serious health hazard in congested
areas. And, with rising wealth, households are switching on a lot more than two
light bulbs. Although hydropower plants are subject to daily and seasonal
variations in water flows (which affects the production of electricity at that
point in time), they are not subject to the fluctuations in fuel costs that
trouble thermal power plants.
While hydropower plants have
large up-front capital costs, they also have long and productive lives, which
significantly help reduce costs over time. For example, the Bhakra Nangal
plant, now more than 40 years old, has operating costs of only Rs 0.10 or US$
0.002 per unit. Hydropower plants are thus generally cheaper in the long run
than natural gas-based plants, which are constantly at risk from fuel price
increases in the global market.
While India plans to develop
mainly run-of-the-river projects, multipurpose hydropower plants with water
storage facilities can help manage critical water resources in an integrated
manner by serving as flood controllers as well as sources of irrigation and
much-needed drinking water. The Tehri Dam in Uttarakhand, for instance, which
was commissioned in 2006, today caters to one-third of the drinking water needs
of Delhi, India’s capital.
Besides which, India’s
hydro-resources are largely available in some of the least-developed parts of
the country and hydropower plants, if designed appropriately offer significant
potential for regional development and poverty alleviation. Hydropower projects
that forge equitable systems of benefit-sharing and implement targeted local
area development can help local communities improve the quality of their lives
quite significantly, says the World Bank.
On assisting India in Hydel
projects, the World Bank says it aims to assist the Government of India in
meeting its targets for hydropower expansion in a sustainable manner. This
entails not just ensuring financial, economical, and technical soundness but
also meeting social practices which have been developed by the industry in
recent years, and safeguarding environmental assets for future generations.
The Bank has been engaged in
hydropower in India since the late 1950s. Several of its past engagements have
been difficult, with Bank support for a number of potential hydropower
projects, including the Sardar Sarovar project on the river Narmada, being
cancelled before they were commissioned. The two most recent Bank engagements,
the Nathpa Jhakri and Koyna IV projects which were completed in 2002 and 1998
respectively, have benefited from the lessons (FAQs) of earlier hydropower
development, including more socially and environmentally sensitive safeguard
policies.
At the request of the
Government of India, the World Bank is supporting one hydropower project in the
country -- the Rampur Hydropower Project downstream from Nathpa Jhakri on the
River Satluj in Himachal Pradesh and is currently evaluating proposals for
supporting two more hydropower projects in the country - the Vishnugad
Pipalkoti Hydropower Project on the River Alaknanda in Uttarakhand and the
Luhri Hydro Electric Project on the River Sutlej in Himachal Pradesh. While the
Rampur Project is under construction, the Vishnugad-Pipalkoti and Luhri
Projects are in varying stages of preparation.
The World Bank is also
assisting the state governments of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand adopt a
river-basin approach in the planning and development of cascaded hydropower
systems. The two mountain states that have made hydropower generation a
significant development priority, had asked for Bank assistance in initiating a
River Basin Development Optimization Study that uses the Satluj and Alaknanda
rivers as case studies which has been completed and discussions are ongoing on
how to take this work forward. The Study also aimed at forging effective and
equitable systems of cost-and benefit-sharing among all stakeholders, including
developers and operators, affected local communities, and host states.
Hydropower stations are
capable of instantaneous starting and stopping and are able to accommodate
various loading alternatives. They help to improve the reliability of power
systems and are ideal for meeting demand during peak times.
Thus, it is abundantly clear water emerges as
the most precious resource – much more precious than even gold - to empower
India
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