Snow slows down Himachal hydropower generation

Unusually harsh Arctic conditions where most of the rivers for Himachal Pradesh's hydropower generation originate have made further pulled down production.

Officials said hydropower generation starts declining in October. By December, it comes down by 80 percent. This winter, it dipped more.

"Against the optimum generation of 36 million units daily, the lowest was 7.5 million units in the previous years during January. But this time, it was around 6.5 million units - 18 percent of the peak generation," said V.K. Verma, deputy general manager of the Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Ltd that operates the 1,500 MW Nathpa-Jhakri project in Kinnaur district. 

He attributed the decline in production to bountiful snow in the catchment of the Satluj river, on which the project is located.

The river discharge is just 68 cubic metres per second against 1,500 cubic metres during monsoon, Verma said.

The state-run Himachal Pradesh State Electricity Board Ltd has 21 hydropower projects across the state with a combined optimum generation capacity of 11 million energy units a day.

Officials said all the projects are generating less than 20 percent power.

R.S. Thakur, chief engineer of the state-run 126-MW Larji hydropower project near Kullu town, said the project is generating 0.65 million units daily against the optimum generation of three million units.

Thakur explained that while decline in generation is normal, this time it's unusual as compared to the previous years.

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Tags: hydropower generation, snow, arctic conditions, Indian rivers