Union minister RK Singh has laid emphasis on clean power for economic development.
Singh, during a consultative committee meeting, reviewed the functioning of NHPC Ltd and implementation of the solar rooftop and pumps programme.
He said that hydro projects have relatively longer useful plant life and help in providing inexpensive power in long term and is ideal for meeting peaking load. There is need to develop more hydro power projects, he said.
NHPC, chairman and managing director, Balraj Joshi gave a presentation on overview of areas of operation of NHPC, portfolio of projects, performance of financial parameters.
He informed that in addition to commissioning of 22 projects of 6,691.2 MW, including joint ventures, NHPC is presently engaged in 25 projects involving 14,000.5 MW, which are under various stages of development in hydro, solar & tyhermal. Out of these, three hydro projects of 3,130 MW capacity and one solar project of 50 MW in Tamil Nadu are under construction.
One hydro project of 1,000 MW of JV company has been accorded cabinet committee on economic affairs (CCEA) clearance and re-tendering is under finalisation. Further, 14 projects of 9,167.5 MW are at various stages of clearances for their implementation. Six hydro projects of 553 MW are in the pipeline for preparation of feasibility report and another three hydro projects of 805 MW are on anvil.
NHPC is envisaging addition of 150 MW solar projects in association with Solar Energy Corporation of India. NHPC has expanded its objective of developing renewable source of energy by commissioning 50 MW wind project in Jaisalmer, Rajasthan, Joshi added.
Under the solar pump programme, around 1,80, 908 solar pumps have been sanctioned and 1,35,545 have been installed till September 30, 2017.
Source: governancenow
