Hydro power contributes 23 per cent to the country's total installed grid power capacity. The country has a large untapped hydro power potential.Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Uttarakhand are among the leading states that have developed a significant part of their hydro potential.

Hydro power plays an important role in meeting peaking power needs and, therefore, is an extremely important constituent of the power mix.However, there are no regulations regarding peaking power so far. The dwindling share of hydro power in the overall power capacity in the country is a cause for concern as it will lead to a heavy bias towards baseload power generation.

The performance of the sector during 2009-10 was dismal, with an addition of only one 39 MW unit against the target of 845 MW. Geological surprises, labour union and local community agitations, and delays in obtaining forest clearances were some of the reasons for the delays in the commissioning of the other scheduled projects.

Given the environmental concerns associated with large hydro power projects, environmental management during the project lifecycle is critical. Recently, a few projects were scrapped because of their adverse environmental impact. The sector has to also grapple with rehabilitation and  resettlement (R&R) issues due to the large-scale displacement of people in the project area.

Infrastructure issues such as access to roads and transmission are the other challenges facing the sector. Due to the remote locations of hydro power projects, the road infrastructure is limited, which adds to the cost of project development. Also, with a major share of projects coming up in the Northeast while the load centres are in the north and west, building the requisite transmission infrastructure is crucial. 

The mission of this conference is to provide an update on the progress in hydro power, to highlight the key challenges hampering the growth of  the  sector  and  to  discuss  strategies  to  overcome  these  challenges.  The  conference will  also  showcase  new  opportunities,  promising technologies and noteworthy/exemplary projects.