(ET)
Above-normal rains in June have helped hydropower stations to step up production, easing concerns caused earlier by scanty showers in April and May, and a low-snowfall winter. In the first two-had-a-half months of the current financial year that began in April, hydropower generation was 7.5% less than the target — 25,771 million units against the aim of 27,864 million units — due to low levels of water in the dams and rivers. But the situation has now changed, with rains lashing several states in the North and monsoon covering most of the southern region.
Earlier, power production had come down 11.5% in April and May compared with the same period last year. “The generation is affected in projects located in North by low rains but arrival of monsoon is expected to increase water levels in the rivers,” an official of state-run hydroelectric company NHPC said. Production had been as much as 25% less than a year earlier at NHPC’s plants in the April-May period.
