Shimla: Environment-friendly micro hydropower projects were losing steam across the country with the Centre’s failure to revive financial assistance for two years to both government and private sector for setting up facilities.
Investors in Himachal Pradesh said that most of the projects have been hanging in limbo since April 1, 2017, when the capital subsidy of Rs 1.25 crore for a project up to 100 kw was abruptly halted.
The construction cost of a project of 100 kw capacity varies from Rs 1.5 crore to Rs 2.25 crore.
“A total of 55 mini hydropower projects in Himachal Pradesh were almost at a standstill owing to the lack of funds after the scrapping of the Central assistance scheme,” independent power producer Amit Walia, who has been allocated a hydro project in the hills of Dharamsala, told IANS.
He said there was no clear-cut timeframe, either of the state or the Central government, on the revival of the subsidy despite declaring all hydro projects as renewable energy.
As per the Centre’s policy, the micro projects were meant to fulfill power requirements of remote areas in a decentralised manner.
In a communication to Walia on July 30 this year, the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy said the last (financial assistance) scheme had ended in 2017.
Now the Ministry will bring in a new scheme very soon, which is under the active consideration of the government, wrote Under Secretary (Small Hydro Power Division) B.S. Negi.
Interestingly, the government scrapped the scheme in 2017 which was declared as the year for hydropower.
Even the Ministry in a communication to Himurja, the state’s nodal agency for renewable energy programmes, on July 25, 2018 claimed that it was in the process of revising the small hydropower scheme.
It had asked Himurja not to forward any new proposal for capital subsidy till the new policy was announced.
The Ministry, which claimed that the financial assistance scheme was ended in April 2017, in an official communication to Himurja on May 25, 2017, sought documents like detailed project report and statutory clearance of 55 projects for extending the financial support.
“On the one hand the Ministry is claiming that the financial assistance scheme came to end on April 1, 2017, and on the other it was seeking documents on May 25 for scrutinizing the proposals for financial assistance. This is something surprising,” Walia said.
According to him, the Union ministry seemed no longer looking at formulating a new scheme for reviving hydropower projects in the country.
In a reply in the Lok Sabha on July 18, Union Minister R.K. Singh said the clearance of the Ministry was not required for setting up of small, mini or micro hydropower projects. It only provides incentives in the form of central financial assistance to the eligible project developers as per prevailing scheme guidelines.
He said 64 proposals were received by the Ministry for availing subsidy in the last three years. These included 16 from Himachal, seven from Uttarakhand and nine from Gujarat.
In a reply to another question in the Lok Sabha, the Minister said the aggregate capacity of small hydro projects commissioned by June 30 in the country was 4,604.81 MW.
