KOCHI: After achieving the status of the world’s first airport fully powered by solar energy, Cochin International Airport Ltd (CIAL) has ventured into hydropower production.
CIAL's first hydropower plant, constructed at Arippara near Kozhikkode, will be commissioned by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on November 6. CIAL estimates an annual power generation of 14 million units through the plant. The power will be fed to the KSEB grid from November first week.
The 4.5 MWp run off the river small hydro project (SHP) was awarded to CIAL by the Power Department, Government of Kerala as per the Kerala Small Hydropower policy under Built-Own-Operate-Transfer (BOOT) for a lease period of 30 years. CIAL started the construction work of a weir across the Iruvazhinji River and hydro-mechanical and electro-mechanical systems at Arippara, near Kodencheri in Kozhikode district.
Even after being affected by the pandemic, CIAL completed the project in September 2021 and the trial run has begun in October. CIAL purchased five acres of land from 32 residents. The total project cost is Rs 52 crore. The powerhouse will generate around 1.08 lakhs unit of power a day during peak flow days and it is estimated that the plant could be operational in full capacity for 130 days in a year.
"Arippara hydroelectric project by CIAL is considered as the biggest project after achieving power neutrality of the Airport in 2015," said S.Suhas, Managing Director, CIAL.
"When the country is deliberating on a power crisis, it is the leadership and guidance of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, as the chairman of CIAL which turned out to be decisive to speed up the project implementation. We are sure that, this will impart further momentum to set up such hydro projects across the state which has 44 rivers and numerous streams," said Suhas.
He said the potential of renewable energy is immense. "If we use our technological imagination, we can work on setting up joint ventures to harness the light of the Sun, the power of the wind, and the strength of rushing streams, and to be more productive and more efficient in the ways we use energy, and we can create a better future’’ added Suhas.
Being a run of the river project, CIAL's small hydropower project at Arippara works on limited storage of water causing no adverse effect on the environment. The scheme envisages the construction of an overflow type weir across the river, which diverts the water to an intake pool from where the intake structure and connected water conductor system (WCS) start. "A surge tank was constructed to moderate the water flow during load acceptance and load rejection time. A penstock feeds two machines each of 2.25 MW capacity. A powerhouse, with horizontal Turbines, is installed at the right bank of the river with an installed capacity of 4.5MW," said Suhas.
Being a project with the majority of civil works to be done along the river banks, the works were severely affected during the two devastating floods of 2018 & 2019. "A lot of additional precautions had to be taken by modifying the designs and also by introducing additional retaining structures to ensure safe working conditions for the labourers," the CIAL managing director said.
The Arippara SHEP is located in the Iruvazhinji River. The site lies in Nellipoyil Village near Kodencheri in Kozhikode district at a distance of 45 km from Kozhikode City.