BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha Hydro Power Corporation (OHPC) is facing mounting revenue losses year after year due to repeated hydrological failures and stringent restrictions imposed by the Water Resources department on power generation from the Hirakud reservoir, particularly between reservoir levels (RL) of 595 ft and 600 ft.
According to OHPC, it is losing nearly 78 million units (MU) of electricity annually solely because of restrictions on generation from Hirakud in order to facilitate irrigation in the reservoir command area. This includes 31 MU loss due to restriction below 595 ft RL and an additional 47 MU loss after the latest directive barring generation below 600 ft RL at the Hirakud hydroelectric projects at Burla and Chiplima.
Although the minimum draw down level (MDDL) of the Hirakud reservoir is 590 ft, the department of Water Resources has restricted generation below 595 ft RL for irrigation purposes and recently raised this limit to 600 ft RL at Burla. As a result, OHPC loses about 14.81 MU annually at HHEP, Burla and 15.95 MU at CHEP, Chiplima, with further losses accumulating due to the extended restriction.
Adding to the financial strain, the design energy approved for CHEP, Chiplima by the Odisha Electricity Regulatory Commission (OERC) has been fixed at 490 MU, which OHPC says is unrealistic based on its long-term performance since commissioning. The corporation estimates an annual loss of around 150 MU from Chiplima alone due to this unachievable benchmark.
Hydrology failures have also severely affected stations such as Upper Kolab hydro power station and others, with reduced inflows, siltation, declining river discharge and changing climate patterns causing generation to fall well below approved levels. In several reservoirs, water levels fail to reach even the MDDL by the end of the water year, leading to unavoidable loss of generation potential.
Although the Energy department has been taking up the matter with Water Resourses department since 2018, the latter is yet to respond by issuing a fresh notification of the minimum draw down level. The only option left for OHPC is to reduce the design energy and approach the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) with relevant hydrology data for revision of design energy of these hydro power stations. But the corporation is undone in the absence of a notification from the Water Resources department.
“In the absence of the required notification from DoWR, the OERC is neither considering the reduction in design energy in respect of HHEP and CHEP for computation of tariff nor compensating for the loss of energy incurred by OHPC as per the provision of the Electricity Act 2003,” sources in OHPC said.