60. Maintenance and Management Arrangements for Small Hydropower Stations

With the ever growing demand of electricity, the conventional fossil fuel are depleting fast and may exhaust one day. Thus, there is a need to explore the new sources as also to go for other nonconventional sources of energy. In last few years, small hydroelectric power stations have received a great deal of attention from different aspects, one as a sizable and easily utilizable source of renewable energy and second as a moderate investment method of providing electricity in underdeveloped areas. The thrust of the first aspect is greater in well developed countries while the second naturally is linked to availability of suitable sources. In India also, small hydropower stations is receiving encouragement at the highest level. The development of small hydel power station in Rajasthan State from the year 1982 and the number of small schemes have been executed since then. Besides construction of these schemes, it is utmost necessary to give attention towards their maintenance and management arrangements. In this paper actual typical cases of hydel power station existing in Rajasthan State have been considered and the problem being faced in management and maintenance for operation of these stations have been discussed and the possible solutions to overcome those problems have been suggested.