Three buddies, Jith George, Rohit Govinda, and Vijesh Sam Sanoop, are chasing their dreams. BTech graduates, they have quit their well-paid jobs and are into the rough and tumble of setting up their own project. For, they have ventured into power generation.
Driving their entrepreneurial spirit is their firm Suiso Energy that they set up three years ago. The Kerala State Electricity Board welcoming independent power producers has come at an opportune time, they think.
Suiso Energy recently got permission for a 350-kW mini-hydroelectric project on one acre at Ezhamkadavu, near Iritty, in Kannur.
Mr. George, 30, says they worked together in a firm that outsourced engineering design and consultancy work dealing with oil and gas. However, four years ago they received consultancy work for a project associated with the KSEB and the Energy Management Centre that helped them understand the potential of the sector.
“We decided to change track to power generation after we took up consultancy work for a mini-hydropower project to generate 100 kW at Vellakayam in Idukki,” says Mr. George, who is from Ernakulam.
Mr. Sanoop, 35, says the government allowed private participation for such projects under two categories, ‘built operate and transfer’ and ‘own land’. The former are bigger ones, where tenders are called for. Under the latter, hydel projects are allowed where there is a feasibility of generating power in own land.
“After searching many locations we identified the land at Ezhamkadavu and the company purchased the land, where we can set up the plant under the run of river scheme,” says Mr. Sanoop, who hails from Kannur.
As per the project, water from the Kundur stream, a tributary of the Valapattanam river, will be channelled, about 150 metres, to the power plant at Ezhamkadavu. After generating electricity, the water flows back into the river.
He says per the Central government norms, there is no need for environmental impact assessment for projects below 10 MW. However, they carried out a techno-economic feasibility study for setting up the plant.
Mr. Govinda, 36, says it is a conventional project and the plant will be set up at ₹3 crore and they expect to generate 10 lakh units per year, with maximum generation expected between June and December. “Once the work is over, we plan to ink an agreement with the KSEB to supply power,” says Mr. Govinda, from Alappuzha.
They have identified sites in Kannur, Palakkad and, Pathanamthitta to set up similar projects.
