NHPC may miss Plan period capacity target by 30%

NHPC Ltd, the country’s largest hydro power producer, is likely to miss its generation capacity addition target of 5,322 Mw for the current Plan period (2007-12) by over 30 per cent owing to geological and law & order problems at project sites. The company will, however, manage to meet its annual commitment of generating 17,200 million units this year.

The company now expects to add around 3,500 Mw by the end of this Plan period. Addition of roughly 2,000 Mw will slip to the next Plan. The projects which are set to slip to the 12th Plan period include the 800-Mw Parbati II hydro electric project in Himachal Pradesh (originally planned to be commissioned in the current financial year) and five units of 250 Mw each of the 2,000-Mw Lower Subansiri hydro electric project in Arunachal Pradesh (which was to be commissioned in 2010-11).

While the company had managed to add two projects of over 1,000 Mw capacity in the first year of the Plan period, no capacity was added last year. In 2009-10, the company is hopeful of commissioning one of the two targeted projects.

India has a hydro power generation capacity of over 36,000 Mw — around a fourth of its total installed capacity. NHPC accounts for over 15 per cent of this hydro generation capacity. The company has planned to invest over Rs 21,600 crore in 12 projects by the end of the current Plan period.