India’s biggest state-run hydropower producer NHPC Ltd has renewed its talks with the Royal government of Bhutan for setting up a hydropower project in the neighbouring country, Raj Kumar Chaudhary, Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) NHPC Ltd told Moneycontrol.
For this, the public sector undertaking had a meeting with Karma Tshering, Secretary of the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources of the Royal government of Bhutan at the India Energy Week in New Delhi on February 12.
“We have approached the government of Bhutan for building a hydropower project in Puna Tsang Chu river in Bhutan. As per our survey, we can build a hydel project of 2,650 megawatt (MW) at least. But, the Bhutanese government wants an even higher capacity of up to 4,000 MW. We are open for that too,” Chaudhary said.
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In India, the Puna Tsang Chu river is known as the Sankosh river as it rises in North Bhutan and empties itself in the Bhrahmaputra river in Assam, India.
Chaudhary said NHPC is looking at expanding its business overseas. Currently NHPC has three hydel projects underway in Nepal - the 624 MW Phukot Karnali project, 480 MW Seti River 6 project, and 800 MW West Seti project.
In Bhutan, NHPC had only acted as a design and engineering consultant for the 720 MW Mangdechhu Hydroelectric Project, which is operational.
In India, NHPC currently has a total operational capacity of 7,233 MW, of which 6,571 MW is hydropower alone and the remaining 662 MW is renewable energy. The company operates at least 22 hydropower projects in India.
“Apart from the 6,571 MW of hydropower that we already have, another 9,314 MW are under construction. At least, 4,000 MW more hydropower projects are at various stages of clearances and about 5,500 MW at the survey stage. Besides, new initiatives comprise as much as 14,700 MW,” Chaudhary said in the interview.
Once the capacities totalling 9,314 MW are commissioned, NHPC’s share in India’s total hydropower generation would increase from the current 15 percent to 67 percent, he said.
According to the Central Electricity Authority (CEA), India has a hydropower potential of about 1,45,320 MW (for projects with a capacity above 25 MW). But at present, only 42,104.6 MW (29 percent) has been developed and another 15,023.5 MW (10.3 percent) is under construction.
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