Small hydro power in India: Current status and future perspectives

The objective of this study is to comprehensively review the current status of small hydro power development in India and develop scenarios of growth. Potential and installed capacity, technological status, policy and regulatory support to small hydro power and the whole process of developing a small hydro power plant have been comprehensively reviewed. Major barriers in the growth of the small hydro power development have been identified. In India, plants with an installed capacity of up to 25 MW are considered as small hydro power plants, and Ministry of New and Renewable Energy of Government of India has been vested with the responsibility of developing this sector. Considerable growth in the development of small hydro power has been witnessed in the recent past; however, nearly three-quarters of the total identified potential of 20,000 MW is yet to be tapped. The country aims at harnessing at least half of the potential in the next 10 years. Future growth scenarios of small hydro power up to 2050 have been developed using Vensim DSS package. Model simulation indicates that with the current rate of capacity addition, the country will not be able to fully exploit small hydro power potential even by 2050. Hence, the country must make all attempts to accelerate the growth of the small hydro power because it has significant potential to contribute to energy poverty alleviation in rural and remotes areas. A sensitivity analysis has been carried out to investigate the effect of different parameters on the cost of small hydro power generation.