Technical and financial support for implementation of Small Hydro Power Projects upto 25 MW

Hydro projects are site specific and the choice of site for hydro plants, small or large, depends on many factors such as topography, hydrology, geology of the area etc. Hydro projects having installed capacity up to 25 MW are classified as small hydro projects and hydro projects of 500 MW & above capacity are considered as Mega projects. The capacity of a hydro project is fixed for optimum utilization of hydro potential at any particular site. Generally, in a particular river basin, combination of small as well as major/medium hydro projects are proposed for development, depending upon the site conditions. However, due to advantages of economy of scale and overall larger benefits in return, major/medium hydro projects (above 25 MW capacity) are more economical and preferred over smaller hydro projects. 

Minister Piyush Goyal stated that the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy is providing technical and financial support for implementation of Small Hydro Power (SHP) Projects upto 25 MW in the country and most of the Projects are either Canal based or Run of the River Projects which do not require a dam or huge reservoirs. The potential of 20,000 MW has been identified for SHP. 

To meet the rising demands of power in future, 88537 MW capacity addition (excluding Renewable Energy Sources) has been planned in the 12th Plan period (2012-17), out of which 10897 MW capacity addition is planned from hydro projects. As on 30.6.2014, 1757.67 MW capacity from hydro projects has already been added in the 12th Plan, the Minister added.