Hydropower Advantages and Relevance

Advantages of Hydro Power

Several advantages associated with hydropower are:

• non- polluting, clean and environment friendly energy
• renewable source of energy
• lower cost of generation, operation and maintenance than other sources of energy
• ability to start and stop quickly
• immediate load acceptance/rejection makes it suitable to meet peak demand, and for enhancing system reliability and stability
• long operating life
• cost of generation free from inflationary effects after the initial installation
• low per unit cost in comparison to other forms of energy
• most feasible form of energy for carbon credits
• storage based hydro schemes provide benefits of flood control, irrigation, drinking water supply, navigation, recreation, tourism and aquaculture, and opening of avenues for development of remote and backward areas

Relevance of Hydro Power for Nepal

For Nepal, hydropower is the best energy alternative for the following reasons:

• puts minimum strain on resources
• water being abundant domestic resource, minimizes foreign dependency on energy
• Nepal can derive and harness all the associated benefits
• can serve as the backbone for the overall socio-economic development
• significant export potential and thus huge opportunity to balance its present trade imbalances
• real possibility to earn huge sums of foreign exchange as secondary benefits in terms of carbon credit