The word hydro comes from a Greek word meaning water.

The energy from water has been harnessed to produce electricity since long. It is the first renewable energy source to be tapped essentially to produce electricity. Hydro power currently suffices one fifth of the global electricity supply, also improving the electrical system reliability and stability throughout the world. It also substantially avoids the green house gas emissions, thus complimenting the measures taken towards the climate change issues. Hydro projects below a specified capacity are known as small hydro. The definition of small hydro differs from country to country, depending on the resources available and the prevalent national perspective. The small hydro atlas shows that the largest of the projects (30 MW) is in US and Canada. Small hydro power has emerged as one of the least cost options of harnessing green energy amongst all the renewable energy technologies. According to the power generated, small hydro power is classified into small, mini/micro and pico hydro. In India, it is being classified as follows. Small hydro - 2 MW - 30 MW Mini - 100 kW - 2 MW Micro - 10 kW - 100 kW Mico hydro - 1 kW - 10 kW Projects with the range of 100 kW and above feed power into the grid. They are commercial by nature. Projects below 100 kW are mostly off grid options being harnessed for rural village electrification. They come under the social sector. Hydro Power The basics of power from water is the result of conversion of potential energy (the water body at a certain height which is known as the "Head") to kinetic energy (a flow which is known as "Discharge" down the pipe) which is transferred to the buckets in the turbine (mechanical energy). It is the prime mover for the generator (electrical energy) which produces electricity. Essentially power from a small hydro potential site is derived from two parameters, head and discharge . Where "head" is the vertical height from which the potential energy of water is converted into electricity after the fall and discharge is the flow rate of the water in the stream/river. Power (kW) = H * Q * Y Where H = Head in m(meter) Q = Discharge in m3/sec (cumecs) Y = Specific weight of water, being the product of mass and acceleration due to gravity (9.81 kN/m3). An altimeter is used for head measurement and various methods are used for discharge measurement based on the site conditions. Limited civil works is carried out for the development of the site for small hydro power. To maintain the power quality controllers and electrical equipments is used.

India Hydro Energy

Introduction
Hydropower is a renewable energy resource because it uses the Earth's water cycle to generate electricity. Water evaporates from the Earth's surface, forms clouds, precipitates back to earth, and flows toward the ocean. The movement of water as it flows downstream creates kinetic energy that can be converted into electricity. 2700 TWH is generated every year. Hydropower supplies at least 50% of electricity production in 66 countries and at least 90% in 24 countries. Out of the total power generation installed capacity in India of 1,76,990 MW (June, 2011), hydro power contributes about 21.5% i.e. 38,106 MW. A capacity addition of 78,700 MW is

envisaged from different conventional sources during 2007-2012 (the 11th Plan), which includes 15,627 MW from large hydro projects. In addition to this, a capacity addition of 1400 MW was envisaged from small hydro up to 25 MW station capacity. The total hydroelectric power potential in the country is assessed at about 150,000 MW, equivalent to 84,000 MW at 60% load factor. The potential of small hydro power projects is estimated at about 15,000 MW.

Technology
A hydroelectric power plant consists of a high dam that is built across a large river to create a reservoir, and a station where the process of energy conversion to electricity takes place. The first step in the generation of energy in a hydropower plant is the collection of run-off of seasonal rain and snow in lakes, streams and rivers, during the hydrological cycle. The run-off flows to dams downstream. The water falls through a dam, into the hydropower plant and turns a large wheel called a turbine. The turbine converts the energy of falling water into mechanical energy to drive the generator After this process has taken place electricity is transferred to the communities through transmission lines and the water is released back into the lakes, streams or rivers. This is entirely not harmful, because no pollutants are added to the water while it flows through the hydropower plant.

Potential in India
India is blessed with immense amount of hydro-electric potential and ranks 5th in terms of exploitable hydro-potential on global scenario. As per assessment made by CEA, India is endowed with economically exploitable hydro-power potential to the tune of 1 48 700 MW of installed capacity. The basin wise assessed potential is as under :-

Basin/RiversProbable Installed Capacity (MW)

Indus Basin 33,832 Ganga Basin 20,711 Central Indian River system 4,152 Western Flowing Rivers of southern India 9,430 Eastern Flowing Rivers of southern India 14,511 Brahmaputra Basin 66,065 Total 1,48,701 In addition, 56 number of pumped storage projects have also been identified with probable installed capacity of 94 000 MW. In addition to this, hydro-potential from small, mini & micro schemes has been estimated as 6 782 MW from 1 512 sites. Thus, in totality India is endowed with hydro-potential of about 2 50 000 MW.

Installed Capacity
The total installed capacity of India is 36878 MW.

Projects
Major Hydropower Generating Units NAME BHAKRA NAGARJUNA KOYNA DEHAR SHARAVATHY KALINADI SRISAILAM COUNTRY STATE PUNJAB ANDHRA PRADESH MAHARASHTRA HIMACHAL PRADESH KARNATAKA KARNATAKA ANDHRA PRADESH CAPACITY (MW) 1100 960 920 990 891 810 770

Top Ten Countries (In Terms Of Capacity) POWER CAPACITY (MWh) INSTALLED CAPACITY (MW) 4000 66954 79511 57517 65000 44000

TAJIKISTAN 527000 CANADA USA BRAZIL CHINA RUSSIA 341312 319484 285603 204300 160500

NORWAY JAPAN INDIA FRANCE

121824 84500 82237 77500

27528 27229 22083 77500

Growth In Hydropower

Small Hydro
In India, hydro power projects with a station capacity of up to 25 megawatt (MW) each fall under the category of small hydro power (SHP). Potential India has an estimated SHP potential of about 15 000 MW. Installed Capacity The total installed capacity of small hydro power projects (upto 25 MW) as on 31.03.2009 is 2429.77 MW from 674 projects and 188 projects with aggregate capacity of 483.23 MW are under construction.

Potential And Projects State-wise details of the potential and installed/under installation projects S.No State Potential Projects Projects Installed implementation Nos Capacity Nos Capacity Nos Capacity 1 Andhra Pradesh 497 560.18 62 189.83 18 61.75 2 Arunachal Pradesh 550 1328.68 101 78.835 28 38.71 3 Assam 119 238.69 4 27.11 4 15 4 Bihar 95 213.25 18 58.3 11 36.31 5 Chhattisgarh 184 993.11 6 19.05 1 1.2 6 Goa 6 6.5 1 0.05 -7 Gujarat 292 196.97 4 12.6 8 Haryana 33 110.05 7 70.1 2 3.4 9 Himachal Pradesh 536 2267.81 112 375.385 40 132.2 10 Jammu & kashmir 246 1417.80 34 129.33 5 5.91 11 Jharkhand 103 208.95 6 4.05 8 34.85 12 Karnataka 138 747.95 111 725.05 18 107.5 13 Kerela 245 704.1 20 136.87 7 23.8 14 Madhya Pradesh 299 803.64 11 86.16 4 19.9 15 Maharashtra 255 732.63 39 263.825 15 51.7 16 Manipur 114 109.13 8 5.45 3 2.75 17 Meghalaya 101 229.8 4 31.03 3 1.7 18 Mizoram 75 166.93 18 36.47 1 0.5 19 Nagaland 99 188.98 10 28.67 4 4.2 20 Orissa 222 295.47 10 79.625 5 3.93 21 Punjab 237 393.23 43 153.2 15 21.4 22 Rajasthan 66 57.17 10 23.85 23 Sikkim 91 265.55 16 47.11 2 5.2 24 Tamil Nadu 197 659.51 16 94.05 6 33 25 Tripura 13 46.86 3 16.01 26 Uttar Pradesh 251 460.75 7 23.3 27 Uttarakhand 444 1577.44 95 134.12 55 230.65 28 West bengal 203 396.11 24 98.9 16 79.25 29 Andaman & Nicobar 7 7.27 1 5.25 Islands Total 571 15384.1 801 2953.58 271 914.81 8 5 SHP Projects Installed In Private Sector (As On 31.03.2009) S.No State Total Number Total Capacity Under

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

Andhra Pradesh 43 Assam 1 Gujarat 2 Himachal Pradesh 63 Haryana 2 Jammu & Kashmir 2 Karnataka 95 Kerela 3 Madhya Pradesh 1 Maharashtra 13 Orissa 2 Punjab 18 Tamil Nadu 1 Uttaranchal 10 West Bengal 5 Total 261

104.43 0.10 5.6 271.25 7.4 17.5 694.90 36.00 2.20 74.00 32.00 26.20 0.35 48.30 6.45 1326.68