OPTIMISED DEVELOPMENT OF SMALL HYDRO IN HIMACHAL PRADESH

Abstract

Himachal Pradesh is endowed with vast hydro power potential which is estimated to be around 20,000 MW. So far only a fraction of it has been developed. Hydropower is attractive because it is a ren441e energy resource that can never be exhausted and which avoids the pollution associated with burning fossil fuels. However, most of the larger hydro schemes involve massive dams, impounding enormous volumes of water in man-made lakes, in order to provide year-round power by smoothing out fluctuations in river flow. In many cases such schemes are far from inexhaustible because the lakes gradually silt up and will cease to function effectively as inter seasonal storage reservoirs within a few decades. There are also numerous environmental problems that can result from interference with river flows, and many of the larger schemes have had adverse effects on the local environment. Because of all these causes the big Hydroelectric schemes such as Tehri Dam, and Narmada Sagar Dam are facing lot of resistance from the environmentalists resulting in delay of the production of hydroelectric power which means huge escalation cost of the project. In view of all this small hydro concept has found widespread acceptance in many parts of the world primarily for providing electric power sources at locations not served by transmission from larger or conventional generation centres.