Boland Hydropower

  Last year's drought in China's Yunnan province slashed hydro power generation by nearly 30 per cent during the first five months of 2020, according to official data. Output this year remains curtailed by around 10 per cent. Yunnan usually accounts for roughly a quarter of China's total hydro generation, and the province is home to several aluminum smelting businesses that require vast quantities of power to operate. The province restricted metal producers' power use earlier this year, forcing some smelting capacity to be temporarily shut. More disruptions are expected. A recent study by researchers in Nanjing looked at the potential impact of climate change and rising temperatures on hydropower generation in Yunnan. Their models showed decreases in rain and snowfall during the October-April drought season and increases in the summer rainy season. To even out the variability, the researchers proposed more storage capacity - more dams and reservoirs. But the diversions

  Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s four 244.4 MW renewable and cheap electricity hydropower projects are stalled due to negligence of the Ministry of Energy (Power Division) and PESCO for the last three years. The projects are pending due to non-approval, notification, import certificates, and purchase agreement. Similarly, Pakhtunkhwa Energy and Development Organisation (PEDO) has an arrear of Rs7,147.604 million in electricity sales to the federal government. A reliable government source told this correspondent that the projects were delayed due to bureaucratic hurdles, which are hampering the production of cheap electricity, while Prime Minister Imran Khan is focusing on cheap hydropower generation in the country. Ongoing hydropower projects are also being affected due to non-payment of dues. According to documents available with this correspondent, the PEDO for the first time in Pakistan for hydropower projects conducted internationally competitive bidding in February 2016 for six projects of