Three years after becoming the first local body in the country to own a mini-hydroelectric project, the Palakkad district panchayat is now setting history by launching works of its second such project at the Chindillam waterfalls at Palakuzhy, near Kizhakkanchery.
Work on the second unit will begin on October 18 and the project is estimated to cost ₹9 crore. It is expected to contribute 3.78 million units of power annually to the State grid. The second project is being initiated on the third anniversary of the panchayat’s first venture at Meenvallom at Karimba on the Bharathapuzha river basin.
Since its launching on August 29, 2014, the power project was able to generate 1,84,74,400 units of electricity. It became profitable by selling the generated electricity at ₹4.88 per unit to the Kerala State Electricity Board (KSEB). The project was established by spending ₹11 crore and in the three years, it became able to generate profit worth ₹6.5 crore.
Like in the case of Meenvallom, Palakuzhy project also involves resource mobilisation from the public. Project coordinator and chief engineer E.C. Padmarajan has said the latest project would be completed in two years on 4.02 acres of land purchased by the local body.
Two other mini and one micro-hydel projects were in the pipeline, he said. The projects were envisaged with the aim of filling the energy deficiency gap using local resources at bare minimum environmental cost. On completion, they would form part of 62 small hydel projects mooted by the State government to generate an addition of 262 MW power.
The Koodam mini-hydel project at Agali in Attapapdy will be the third project and it would generate 4.5 MW power. Another project would come up at Chempukatti in Kottopadam, near Mannarkkad, and it would generate 6.5 MW power.
The micro-hydel project also would come up in Meenvallom and it would use the tail-race water from the main project there to generate 8.4 millions units of power.
“When the district panchayat mooted the idea of power generation, many experts doubted the feasibility. Now experts from many foreign countries are visiting Palakkad to learn about mini-hydel projects. The Meenvallom project had helped the panchayat to win Bharat Ratna Rajiv Gandhi National Award for Best Local-Body twice,” said K. Santhakumari, president of the district panchayat.
