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Status of Small Hydro Power in Tamil Nadu - Potential, Installed Capacity, Future Plans - India Renewable Energy Consulting – Solar, Biomass, Wind, Cleantech
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When someone thinks about small hydro power in India, he or she thinks mainly about North East or Himachal Pradesh, or sometimes perhaps Karnataka. Tamil Nadu does not usually come to mind for small hydro, and perhaps with justification, because the state does not figure in the country in the top 5 when it comes to potential for small hydro. However, small hydro has been contributing its bit to renewable energy in Tamil Nadu, and I provide some updates and inputs for the same

  • Small hydro is the third largest renewable energy contributor to electricity production in TN (after wind and biomass).
  • Estimated potential – 659.51 MW through 197 sites
  • Installed capacity is 94.05 MW as of Nov 2011. In addition, 6 more projects totaling 33MW is in the process of getting commissioned.
  • TANGEDCO has also proposed to establish small hydroelectric projects of capacity less than 25 MW   in the run of river scheme with total capacity of 110 MW.
  • A number of mini/micro hydro projects are being set up in remote and isolated areas. A number of tea garden owners are also setting up micro hydel projects to meet their captive requirement of power.
  • All SHPs that are currently in operation are state owned and there is only one small hydro project of 350kW capacity that is a private sector investment.
  • Organizations such as the Water Mill Associations, cooperative societies, registered NGOs etc., are being encouraged to install watermills in their areas for electricity generation to meet small scale electrical requirements of villages.


About Narasimhan Santhanam (Narsi)

Narsi, a Director at EAI, Co-founded one of India's first climate tech consulting firm in 2008.

Since then, he has assisted over 250 Indian and International firms, across many climate tech domain Solar, Bio-energy, Green hydrogen, E-Mobility, Green Chemicals.

Narsi works closely with senior and top management corporates and helps then devise strategy and go-to-market plans to benefit from the fast growing Indian Climate tech market.

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