SELECTION OF SUITABLE SITES FOR SMALL HYDRO POWER SCHEMES USING REMOTE SENSING TECHNIQUES

Abstract

Energy is a vital input for economic and social development of a country. One of the most versatile and recognised form of energy is the electrical energy. In India, rapid population growth and economic measures have started creating serious power shortages necessitating the need for optimum utilisation and conservation of available resources as well as exploring new avenues for generating power to augment the presently available one. Hydro power constitutes an important source of power generation due to its intrinsic economy, renewable and eco-friendly nature, high conversion efficiency and several other advantages. In India, the, Himalayan range, spreading across East-West for nearly 3200 Km length and a width of nearly 640-Km and lying in the elevation zone varying from few hundred metres to few thousand metres, has abundant hydro power potential. Long gestation period, difficulty in mobilising financial resources and environmental issues are retarding the growth of large and medium hydro power projects. Small hydro power project with unit power generating capacity of less than 5000 KW is a renewable source which can provide electricity to rural remote areas and hilly terrain in a cost effective and environmentally benign manner requiring no resettlement or deforestation. The present study aims at developing a simple, quick and reliable approach to select suitable sites for small hydro power stations using field data, topographic maps, thematic maps and satellite data products. The other objective of the study is to examine the utility of satellite with or without topographic maps for the selection of these suitable sites. On the basis of this study, it is concluded that proper guidelines are to be made available for planners and engineers for the analysis and design of small hydro power projects with clear specifications regarding situations such as ungauged streams, non-availability of site investigation reports etc. IRS LISS II data products provided latest information on land use/land cover of the site which was used to compute the discharge of the streams. It was also observed that in absence of topographic maps, IRS LISS II data may be used to supplement the ground investigations (except the height data). 41, Based on literature review and the present work, it is recommended that a data bank is required to be developed by a Central Co-ordinating body to minimise the time of collection of required data, using Geographic Information System (GIS) Approach. Use of IRS-IC satellite data may be extremely helpful to generate Digital Elevation Model (DEM) of the catchment and land use information at 6m spatial resolution, which may boost the process of selection of small hydro power sites, particularly in hilly regions.