Hi all.
According to the latest facts [June 20th, 2007] of Power ministry of Govt. of India, the country has 1,34,716 MW of installed power generation facility, out of which 52% is state sector, 34% is central and 14% is private.
Also, 65% is thermal and 25% is hydel. This is where we need to look at.
India is harnessing only 17 % of it's potential hydel power, whereas countries like Norway [58%], Canada [50%] and Brazil [ 31%] are way ahead.
The Indus basin has 20000 MW potential, yet to be harnessed, Ganga basin has 11000 MW and the Brahmaputra has 35000 MW. Fortunately the previous central government realised the importance of this and came out with a plan of 50,000 MW power generation by 2017. This initiative has started with the preparation of feasibility report and detailed project report. 162 hydroelectric schemes have been identified with an aggregate installed capacity of 50,560 MW. They are located in sixteen States of the country. Of these, 106 schemes aggregating to about 39,000 MW are located in only four States namely Arunachal Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir. These projects under this Initiative are proposed to be taken up for execution during 11th & 12th Plans i.e. between 2007-2017.
And there is a whole set of budgetary and infrastructural and governmental initiatives being taken to exploit the hydel resources.
But the social issues keep haunting with people like Medha Patkar and Arundhati Roy [ Aamir Khan being the latest addition] staging protests every other day against such massive projects. Also, one major strategic fear with the Government of India is China's claim every now and then [ the latest being last month] that Arunachal is theirs. [ remember, Arunachal is the biggest contributor in hydel sector ].
Every developmental project in this country is so, a political, social, environmental, diplomatic, strategical, regionally chauvinistic and deadly opposed by the Left.
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3 comments:
Sadly, as you have pointed out, the problem with hydel power is more in the social aspect than in the technological or economic feasibility. There is no real way out, the Medha Patkars and the rest will keep protesting unless they feel that the Government is providing adequate rehabilitation to those who are being displaced by these projects. The protests may not stop even then, but the Government can at least start off by making sure that compensation reaches the people on time, and is adequate.
Thats true Prannoy. The government off late is doing its best. But is just unable to ensure 100 % proper rehabilitation. That is understandable. And there are other ways of protesting also. not by trying to stop the half done project. And it is not a secret any more that these NGOs protesting the developmental projects are heavily funded by foreign institutions.
I am seriously concerned that these people will now turn to the mega power projects [already the mega power project in TadaDi in Karnataka has attracted lot of protests ]
Prannoy and Thejas - Excellent discussion. Here are two other points to note:
1. The capacity numbers that you mention are the installed capacity. There is another term called the Plant Load Factor (PLF) that measures the extent to which the installed capacity is used. E.g., if the PLF is 80%, it means that if the installed capacity was 100 MW, you are generating 80 MW. Therefore even though we claim that we have "xyz" MW of power in the country and that we are planning to tap the Indus basin etc etc, a pertinent question to ask would be "How efficient are we at producing power? Should we improve plant efficiency rather than continually look at new projects?" Think about it.
2. I am unclear from the discussion as to whether you think the social protests are acceptable or not. We will discuss this in great detail in about a month or so. For now it will suffice to say that "100% rehabilition" is tough to measure. If I just pay you the price of your land that I take from you - or even twice that amount, does that compensate you for the loss of your income, your ancestral properties and their cultural heritage, hardships incurred while relocating, the potential change in your occupation etc? NGOs are justified to some extent in making sure displaced people are given fair compensation - at the same time, they do go too far on occasions. More on this later
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