IEEE Power & Energy Magazine - September/October 2020 - 19

initiatives that provide these benefits. The enabling infrastructure required for the development of (mostly remotely
located) hydro projects is also being prioritized. This article
provides a look at impediments to the implementation of
hydropower schemes in India and discusses the initiatives
outlined in the new hydropower policy to attract public and
private investment and strengthen the sector.

Hydropower in India
India is endowed with upward of 148 GW of hydropower
potential, of which only about 45,700 MW has been exploited
so far. While hydropower projects inherently have a long gestation period compared to other power projects (all things considered equal, a hydro plant takes about twice as long to complete as a thermal power plant and about four times the period
required for a solar plant to be up and running), the hydro sector in India has been particularly plagued by schedule delays
and increased project costs. These factors, combined with the
government's focus from the 1970s to the 1990s on developing coal-based generation, have led to severe
erosion of hydropower's share in the country's
total generation capacity. The sector that contributed more than 50% of the nation's power
in the 1960s was decimated to become a small
player, with a contribution of only around 12%
in 2019 (Figure 1).
At the end of March 2020, India's total
installed capacity was 370 GW. Table 1 shows
the contributions of different sources of
power-thermal, nuclear, hydro, and renewables-to the total capacity along with the
share of each of the three major players:
federal government-controlled utilities, state
government-controlled utilities, and independent power producers.
As can be seen, out of the total installed
capacity of more than 370 GW, only 45.7 GW
(12.35%) correspond to hydropower. Thermal
(primarily coal) accounts for 230.81 GW
(62.37%); other sources, including solar,
wind, and biogas, are 86.7 GW (23.45%);
and nuclear is 6.78 GW (1.83%). Coal-based
generation, which has traditionally dominated India's power-generation landscape,
currently ac counts for approximately 63%
of the total installed capacity and more
than 80% of the total energy generated in
the country.
The situation for hydro, which has continued to suffer from severe malaise related
to several factors, including a lack of state
impetus, has become so grim that, in the
last decade, only about 8,500 MW of hydropower capacity were added to the national
inventory. Based on data obtained from the
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Fortunately, India has immense water resources and varying terrain, offering excellent potential to harness hydropower. Unfortunately, the country has lagged significantly
behind in developing this potential. Currently, only about
30.8% of the 148-GW hydropower potential is exploited.
While an additional small percentage is under construction,
a significant portion of the available capacity has yet to be
planned or developed.
Given that intermittent renewables penetration is occurring at a fast pace, there is a strong case to focus on developing hydropower resources in a responsible and accelerated
manner. Accordingly, the government of India has formulated
several policies in recent years to give impetus to the development of hydropower projects. One such important decision is
to include hydro as a renewable source of energy irrespective
of the size of the project. Realizing that some hydro projects
are inherently conducive to providing flood moderation and
water security through storage, the government has agreed
to provide, on a case-by-case basis, budgetary support to

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