The tiny Himalayan state
Sikkim may well provide the much needed succor to part of North India which
reel under chronic power crisis.
Sikkim, which taken up the
challenge to harness hydro electric power from its running rivers like Teesta
with Teesta Urja series of six projects, is well on its way to complete the
largest among them – Teesta-III next – year.
With this, experts say,
Sikkim sets the new trend for developing hydel projects as the country is blessed
with bounty of rivers flowing from Himalayan glaciers during summer when the
power consumption is at its peak. Development of hydro power projects along the
Himalayan river course thus could be a win-win situation for the people and the
governments.
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.
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.
A World Bank report notes
that severe power shortage is one of the greatest obstacles to India’s development.
Over 40 percent of the
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.
Some may even call it Water
Gold! Look at this HSBC Global Research that says 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.
The government admits
India’s failure to tap hydel power. 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
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!
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