Power Min to give major thrust to hydro power, says minister

NEW DELHI: There will be a major thrust on hydro sector by different ways to bring down cost of electricity from this renewable source, Power Minister Piyush Goyal said on Monday. "I shall be going later this week to Arunachal Pradesh also to review some of the power projects. In coming few months, we want to give major thrust by different ways to bring down the cost of hydro power," Goyal said here.

"Hydro power is also renewable energy. We are working on a position paper after studying all international experiences, we will look very seriously to see whether these should be categories as renewable power," the minister said. In the present scenario, the small hydro projects up to 25 MW are treated as renewable energy while others do not get incentives being provided by the government for encouraging clean energy.

New & Renewable Energy Ministry is in the process of drafting a Cabinet proposal to reclassifying large hydro power plants as renewable projects, a move which can help India achieve clean power capacity of 230 GW by 2022.

India has set an ambitious target of adding 175 GW of renewable energy capacity by 2022 which includes 100 GW of solar, 60 GW from wind, 10 GW from bio-power and 5 GW from small hydro-power (up to 25 MW capacity each).

Of the 310 GW installed power generation capacity, 43 GW comes from large hydro projects (above 25 MW) and 46 GW from other renewable power generation capacities.

The minister further said, "We would like to encourage the (hydro power) sector after it is categorised as renewable, speed up the projects, get back all the stalled projects and some support to the hydro sector because it is one sector which gives you sustainable quality power for over 100 years."

The minister commended Tamil Nadu for joining UDAY scheme and expressed hope that Kerala, Sikkim and West Bengal would also join the scheme meant for revival of debt-stressed distribution companies.