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. 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. 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. 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. To gain cooperation of locals, 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 locals, developer and local administrative official should be constituted. 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

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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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

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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. 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. 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. 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.

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