India to Have 70,000 MW of Hydropower Capacity by 2030

New Delhi: India will have an installed hydropower generation capacity of 70,000 megawatt (MW) by 2030, Aniruddha Kumar, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy said last week in a webinar organised by industry body ASSOCHAM.

“After the April 5 lights-out event, the importance of hydropower has further been highlighted among the government quarters. We are all committed to promote hydro and want to reach 70,000 MW installed capacity by 2030,” Kumar said, adding during the April 5 the team led by POSOCO managed the fluctuation of 32,000 MW power demand with no hassles.

Kumar said hydropower is required to meet the flexibility in case of increasing penetration of renewable energy into the grid. “We have requested the World Bank to carry out a study to determine the flexibility of hydropower, so that we get the right kind of market and regulatory framework for hydropower,” he said.

The country has around 13,000 MW of hydropower plants under various stages of construction and another 8,000 MW projects are in the pipeline which will commence construction in the next six to eight months. The current installed capacity of hydropower in the country stands at around 45,700 MW. India has an estimated hydropower potential of 145,000 MW at 60 per cent plant load factor.

The power ministry in its draft amendment of the Electricity Act has proposed to include hydropower within the renewable purchase obligation (RPO) targets set for the state power distribution companies.

Source: ET EnergyWorld