Analysis of the Generation and performance of Hydro

Electric Projects (All over India, Maneri Bhali and Tehri)

in context of the Installed Hydro Capacity.

Study focused on the following facts and figures.

1. Installed hydro power capacity in India. (26% of total Installed Capacity in India)
2. Power Generation by hydro projects in India.(17% of total Power Generation in India)
3. Performance of hydro projects in India.( MU/MW installed has been decreasing)
4. Ideal vs Actual ( The discrepancies in the HEP’s)
5. Tehri Dam status according to Central Electricity authority (CEA).
6. Performance of Maneri Bhali Dam, reasons for under performance.

 An Important figure:-
If 1000Watt power consumes throughout an hour it is known as 1 Unit

i.e. 1000 watt*1hour = 1kW*1hour = 1 Unit

1000kW*1hour = 1000 Unit

1000kW*24hour*365days = 8,76,0000 Unit = 8.76 Million Unit (MU)

It means if 1MW(1000kW) project runs for 100% of the time in a year it would ideally
generate “ 8.76 MU ”electricity.
1. Installed Hydro power capacity in India
In the year 2006-07 the percentage of installed hydro power was 26% of the total Installed power in India.
( Data Annexed)

Month-wise Installed Plant Capacity (Hydel) of Electricity* in India

(November 1988 to March 2009)

(MW)

Year Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar

1988-89 - - - - - - - 17178 17293 17293 17392 17478

1989-90 17586 17586 17666 17681 17886 17946 17948 17948 17948 17948 18031 18085

1990-91 18147 18152 18152 18152 18152 18280 18280 18395 18395 18395 18395 18443

1991-92 18443 18443 18443 18443 18575 18575 18593 18613 18613 18628 18632 18672

1992-93 18752 18752 18752 18752 19042 19132 19152 19163 19260 19340 19340 19355

1993-94 19361 19361 19476 19476 19477 - - - - 19509 19509 19673

1994-95 20224 20236 20238 20246 20311 20311 20311 20351 20351 20391 20506 20505

1995-96 20506 20506 20506 20506 20506 20506 20506 20506 20506 - 20506 20531

1996-97 20531 20531 20531 20542 20542 20542 20542 21162 21282 21402 21421 21471

1997-98 21645 21645 21694 21713 21773 21841 21841 21845 21862 21862 21862 21891

1998-99$ 21899 21959 22007 22007 22007 22007 22017 22017 22083 22083 22083 22443

1999-00$ 22443 22455 22663 22675 22737 22752 23025 23032 23182 23527 23529 23816

2000-01$ 23816 23816 23891 24412 24562 24712 24712 24712 24724 24746 24804 25142

2001-02$ 25182 25202 25203 25290 25313 25364 25574 25574 25574 25844 25859 26261

2002-03$ 26261 26261 26261 26267 26302 26402 26410 26560 26560 26660 26760 26910

2003-04$ 26910 27010 27010 27010 27010 27410 27410 27760 27885 28135 28860 29500

2004-05$ 29507 29507 29507 29632 29632 29682 29857 29912 30087 30142 30335 30936

2005-06$ 31136 31136 30995 31390 31745 31877 31877 32077 32077 32077 32277 32277

2006-07$ 32270 32270 32920 32935 33137 33294 33544 33544 33586 33836 33966 34476
 2007-08$ 34581 34610 34610 34900 35294 35359 35557 35847 36072 36298 36298 36468

2008-09$ 37086 37211 37211 37336 37336 37375 37675 37825 37825 37945 38060 38060

Note : $ : Capacity figures relate to the end of month of the year stated. Source : Data as per Central
Statistical Organisation (CSO), Compiled by Indiastat.

 We can see that at the end of march 2009

the installed Hydro capacity is 38060
MW.

 The Graph clearly shows the linear

growth in installed capacity from the year
2000 to 2009.

2. Generation statistics of the

Hydro projects in India

In the year of 2006-07 the percentage of hydro power generation was only 17% of the total power
generation in India ( data annexed ).This poor contribution of hydro power surprise but
Shockingly We See that 2008-09 generation(112697MU) was below the 2006-07 generation figure of
113359 Million Units, even though the installed capacity at the end of 2006-07 was 34476 MW, about 3600
MW below the March 2009 installed capacity. Now look at the surprising Generation loss and under
performance of the HEP’s:-

Year Installed Ideal Actual Efficiency(%) Generation/Installed

Capacity Generation(MU) Generation capacity (MU/MW)
(MW) at 100% (MU)
performance
2,20,244 MU 74350 MU 33.75% 2.95
2000-01 25142
2,30,046 MU 73676 MU 32.02% 2.80
2001-02 26261
2,35,131 MU 63833 MU 27.14% 2.37
2002-03 26910
2,58,420 MU 73775 MU 28.54% 2.50
2003-04 29500
2,70,939 MU 84416 MU 31.15% 2.72
2004-05 30936
2,82,746 MU 101360 MU 35.84% 3.14
2005-06 32277
 3,02,089 MU 113359 MU 37.52% 3.28
2006-07 34476
3,19,459 MU 123423 MU 38.63% 3.38
2007-08 36468
3,33,405 MU 112697 MU 33.80% 2.96
2008-09 38060

Month-wise Electricity Generation* (Hydel) in India Total

(November 1988 to March 2009)

(Million KwH) Yearly

Year Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Generation

1988-89 - - - - - - - 506.6 483.2 489.8 433.3 475.5 -

6199.3 MU
1989-90 465.1 476.6 480.0 579.1 673.8 662.7 634.8 490.3 472.6 419.0 393.8 451.5
7074 MU
1990-91 453.6 503.1 573.3 603.2 735.2 755.1 654.1 542.6 545.9 571.0 533.9 603.0
7259 MU
1991-92 562.4 551.1 576.3 694.9 813.3 763.9 653.4 514.1 552.5 486.1 501.0 590.0
6984.1 MU
1992-93 519.2 514.2 482.3 595.4 746.3 775.9 669.6 582.4 541.0 531.8 479.2 546.8

1993-94 549.7 567.9 559.3 648.9 756.0 - - - - 503.4 477.8 544.6 -

8249.6 MU
1994-95 458.6 561.9 613.2 834.7 975.3 953.3 776.0 659.6 659.1 587.1 559.3 611.5
-
1995-96 553.5 590.2 633.1 678.6 784.9 793.6 681.1 589.3 528.5 - 434.3 505.7
6887.7 MU
1996-97 466.2 516.7 510.2 642.0 782.4 760.7 656.9 556.7 594.2 471.4 433.6 496.7
7457.1 MU
1997-98 457.5 529.9 516.0 729.9 838.8 849.0 645.5 510.0 540.9 601.0 556.9 681.7
83385 MU
1998-99 6889 6721 6640 8378 7613 8920 7607 6198 6256 6127 5610 6426
81364 MU
1999-00 5695 5414 6226 7835 9794 8660 6942 6566 6942 5725 5249 6316
74350 MU
2000-01 6365 6317 6052 7421 8019 8051 6536 5768 5159 4870 4773 5019
73676 MU
2001-02 4423 5795 6174 8109 8685 7495 5696 5584 5385 5288 4692 6350
63833 MU
2002-03 5573 5778 5890 6570 6603 7322 5747 4505 4132 3736 3471 4506
73775 MU
2003-04 4494 5764 6069 7201 7501 7759 6650 6402 5736 5281 5159 5759
84416 MU
2004-05 5252 6312 7520 8686 10658 9104 7881 6462 5751 5385 4795 6610
101360 MU
2005-06 6456 8270 7735 9651 13349 11402 9126 7515 7126 7127 6844 6759
113359 MU
2006-07 7477 8794 9240 11029 14498 12939 11103 8238 8413 7520 6077 8031
 123423 MU
2007-08 8745 9519 10058 15402 15729 13777 11191 8608 7753 7979 7026 7636
112697 MU
2008-09 8029 9925 10555 12858 13865 12277 9794 7889 6933 6913 6595 7064

Note: Nov. 1988-89 to Mar. 1997-98 figures are in Crore KwH.

     * Public Utilities | - Not Available
Source : Data as per Central Statistical Organisation (CSO), Compiled by Indiastat.

3. Performance of Hydro Projects in India

Also a detail study of under performance has been done by “South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers and
People” (SANDRP) which shows the decreasing trend line of performance(power generation per MW
installed has been decreasing) and there is a fall about 20% in these sixteen years.

The fall in the trend line is clearly seen ( Detail study by “SANDRP” is attached ).

If one says that the low rainfall is the reason for this generation loss then it is to be cleared that the
period we are looking at , has generally seen above average national rainfall. Some figures of previous
rainfall are shown below.

Average Annual Rainfall (Actual) in India

(1996 to 2005)

Annual Rainfall (mm)

 Year Actual

1996 1154.6

1997 1220.2

1998 1226

1999 1111.5

2000 1026.9

2001 1075.4

2002 941.7

2003 1205.1

2004 1035.6

2005 1175.4

Source : Rajya Sabha Unstarred Question No. 3013, dated 19.12.2006.

4. Ideal vs Actual ( The discrepancies in the HEP’s)

Since, 1 MW at 100% performance produces 8.76 MU. So, the ideal trend of performance should be linear.
 (Straight line shows the linearity in the Generation as the function of Installed capacity.)

But in the graph between the actual generation vs installed capacity We can see that

 Points and line in non linear

way and this chaotic nature of
performance and the loss in
generation in spite of the
addition of much more
installed capacity.
 This gives rise to the clear
possibility that a lot of
‘unviable projects and
unviable capacities are being
added, leading to a huge
social, environmental and
economic impacts.

5. Power Generation Performance of Tehri dam:-

According to the generation statistics from CEA the performance of Tehri dam has been decreasing
continuously . The table below shows the generation performance of Tehri dam in different time
periods. (Detail of data is annexed).

Year Program Actual Year Program Actual

2008 (MU) (MU) 2009 (MU) (MU)
January 287 257 January 290 278
February 251 232 February 252 222
March 230 192 March 259 209
April 165 142 April 205 197
May 139 139 May 223 176
June 207 233 June 207 131
July 180 481 July 148 126
August 404 672
September 347 285
October 159 148
November 171 154
December 277 203
( Source of data:- Central Electricity authority )

 We can see that the production in the current year is continuously decreasing and is not fulfilling
its target anywhere . In the month of June-July surprisingly we see the great loss in generation in
comparison of last year.

 One more point to be noticed that 1000 MW Tehri dam was programmed for total 2817 MU
electricity generation in the year 2008.
Ideally it should be 1000*8.76 = 8760 MU.
This clearly shows that even programmed efficiency of the project is only 32.15% (???)

 Further it has produced 3138 MU in 2008 Which is due to surprising over performance of the
project in the month of July and august 2008 but on another side if we look at the performance
of June and July 2009 the generation is far low in spite of no big changes in programmed
capacity.

This all represent the great uncertainty and discrepancy in the performance of Tehri Dam.

6. Performance of Maneri Bhali (??? On the feasibility of Loharinag-pala HEP)

The RTI query of the generation of 90 MW Maneri Bhali (stage 1) is given below which shows the
under performance of the project.
 One should know that these dams are run of the river in nature and the major reason for low
performance is the heavy sedimentation during the rainy season and less water availability in winter
season(As described by the authorities in the RTI).

 Loharinag- Pala HEP is on the upstream of Bhagirathi and almost 35 Km. above the Maneri dam
There are 7-8 tributaries join the Bhagirathi between this 35 Km long stretch, hence the water
availability for this 600 MW project is much less than that of Maneri Bhali 1.

 Also there were no studies have been done on Retreating Glacier in conjunction with water
availability and no study on the cumulative impact of these dams before the clearance of
Loharinag-Pala hydro project.

Study done by
Ganga Ahvaan
www.gangaahvaan.org