Recommendations on SHP Seminar

1. Most of the Small Hydro Projects (SHP) sites are located far away from the

road side. In case cost of infrastructure development is also loaded to SHP,

the project may become commercially unviable. State Government shall take

comprehensive program for development of roads to these sites under

various schemes like PGGY or State sponsored rural road schemes in a time

bound manner.

2. Single Window Clearance shall be available to the hydro developer to

facilitate all clearances in a time bound manner. Forest & Revenue Clearances

should also be part of single window clearance.

3. Hydrology & Toposheets should be collected by State Government in advance

and should be handed over to the hydro site developer at a time of signing of

Implementation agreement.

4. Central Water Commission (CWC) / Irrigation department of the State/ other

agencies are measuring hydrology in different streams. It is seen that

generally SHP sites are not having reliable hydrological data and are required

to depend upon computation methodology which may not be correct

approach. It is seen that many SHP are suffering due to inaccurate hydrology

considered while preparing the DPR. Guidelines /manuals of small hydro

needs to be updated/revised considering the practical considerations.

In view of the above, CWC/ Irrigation Department/State Government should

take up program for installation of G&D sites on tributaries/sub-tributaries of

river where SHPs are possible and keep record so that the data can be made

available to the prospective developers.

5. Monitoring of implementation work of hydro sites shall be done by State

through a dedicated monitoring cell. Any problem beyond the control of the

developer may be resolved by state government.

6. To gain cooperation of local’s, it is necessary that money collected under

LADA scheme should be utilized for the area for which money has been

collected. For the purpose of monitoring, a committee comprising of

representative from local’s, developer and local administrative official should

be constituted.

7. It has been seen that Forest Department is collecting huge amount of money

for CAT Plan but rarely work has been carried out on ground. There is a need

to fairly work out cost of CAT plan depending on the project U/S & D/S of a

particular stream. Due to non-implementation of CAT Plans, future hydro

projects as well as present hydro projects suffer due to landslide, erosion and

silt problem. Hence a committee comprising of Forest Department, State

officials, concerned developer and local Panchayat representatives should be

constituted and a completion report of the work as conceived should be

prepared and submitted to State Government/Developer alongwith the

expenditure carried out in various works.

8. It has been seen that due to some reasons the hydro sites allocated to some

developing agency are transferred to another developing agency. It shall be

obligatory on the part of earlier agency to hand over the data collected to the

new developer at a reasonable cost. A suitable provision in the agreement is

recommended to be made.

9. Central Water Commission/ Central Electricity Authority (CEA) are expert

organization in the field. They may be requested to provide guidance to the

small hydro developer on request.

10. A Regional PMP Atlas is one of the important input. CWC has been

maintaining PMP Atlas and continue to do so in future and may be requested

to disseminate information which can be available on website.

11. Power evacuation is one of the bottlenecks in the commercial viability of the

SHP. Power shall be purchased at generating bus. Since construction of

evacuation line if constructed by the state agency may not match with the

commissioning of the hydro units, hence construction of evacuation line may

be entrusted to hydro developers at an approved cost which can be

reimbursed to the hydro developer suitably. Cluster of hydro sites in a

particular valley can be clubbed to optimize the cost of evacuation.

12. It has been seen that 11kV line are running in some area as long as 20 kms

resulting in heavy power loss and voltage drop. These existing lines may be

utilized by providing LILO arrangement to the extent possible which will not

only result in reduction in the transmission losses but would also improve the

voltage of that area.

13. Uttarakhand Electricity Regulatory Commission (UERC) has come out with

positive upward revision of tariff and metering of power at generating bus.

Different Regulatory Commission has to be approached so they also carried

out suitable exercise so that rules are amended to encourage development of

SHP.

14. Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) has installed Rain Gauges, but they

are not available in sufficient number. State Government as well as CWC

may carry out installation of Rain Gauges with or without IMD, so that

sufficient date is available basin-wise.

15. It has been observed that in many cases developers before taking the hydro

sites have not carried out proper due-diligence of the site. All the developer

may be advised that before considering any site for allotment they should

carry out techno-commercial due- diligence. The small amount spent at initial

stage will save huge losses to the small developers.

16. States are allocating the hydro sites without carrying out the initial work like

Head available, Hydrology and Geology studies etc. It should be

recommended to the State that for all possible sites, atleast PFR should be

made covering Topology, Hydrology and Geological aspects. The risk

anticipated shall be elaborated in the PFR. In case of any Wild Life

Sanctuary/ Bio-sphere falls in project area etc which may result refusal of

approval/delay in approval should be highlighted in PFR.

17. Most important aspect is optimization of valley which will reduce the cost of

infrastructure/evacuation system and would result in optimum exploitation

of small hydro potential, so State Govt. should adopt the optimization

approach of valley.