Hydropower reservoirs level doubles due to rains in Nilgiris

CHENNAI: The storage levels in the hydro reservoirs maintained by the Tangedco have doubled due to heavy rains in The Nilgiris.

According to Tangedco data, the storage in the hydel reservoirs (expressed in terms of million units) stood at 1,264.669 million units on Wednesday while it was 609.739 MUs on the same day last year. As against the state’s total hydel storage of 2,439 MU, The Nilgiris Group comprising Pykara and Kundah reservoirs alone have a combined storage of 1,523 MU, which accounts for nearly two-thirds of the total storage.

With heavy rains lashing Nilgiris district this month, the reservoir storage has gone up to 785.284 MU from 121.753 MU on July 1, which is an increase of 548 per cent. Nilgiris received 101 per cent excess rain in the southwest monsoon with the district receiving 771.7 mm of rainfall as against the normal of 384.5 mm. In the monsoon, the state received excess rainfall of 67 per cent.

While the storage in other reservoirs has gone up from 266.608 MU on July 1 to 393.880 MU on Wednesday. In Mettur Reservoir, the storage has touched 85 MU from 9.85 MU in the beginning of this month with the dam receiving an inflow of 60,771 cusecs. A Tangedco official said that hydro generation stood at 820 MU from April 1 to July 23 this year as against 970 MU in the corresponding period last year. The official said that the Central Electricity Authority has fixed a generation target of 4,329 MU for 2024-25.