Delayed monsoon reduces NHPC's output by 10%

The delay in the southwest monsoon has resulted in NHPC’s output declining 10 per cent over the past 10 days.

The majority of NHPC’s power generation capacity is accounted for by plants set up on river banks. A delay in the monsoon takes a toll on the discharge of river water for the plants.

“Average data for the past 10 days indicates generation loss of up to 10 per cent, owing to the delayed rainfall. This is approximately between seven million units and eight million units a day,” said A B L Srivastava, director (finance).

“Production in the quarter ended June stood at 6,000 million units, against 6,200 million units in the year-ago period. There has been no revenue loss from the fall in generation,” he said, adding it wasn’t possible to predict when would the situation improve.

The company said it would invest about Rs 4,090 crore on additional capacity of 777 Mw in the current financial year. NHPC had missed its 11th Plan capital expenditure target of Rs 21,000 crore by about 40 per cent, spending only Rs 13,000 crore during the five-year period ended March. It also missed its capital expenditure target of Rs 1,000 crore for the quarter ended June by 30 per cent.

“A major reason for the slippage in capex (capital expenditure) has been the lack of environment and forest clearances. We are taking up the issue with state governments concerned. At present, we are working on clearances for capacity of 4,500 Mw,” Srivastava said.

NHPC today commissioned the 231-Mw capacity Chamera-III project in Himachal Pradesh. Power from the project would be supplied to Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.