Heavy rains in Himachal good for reservoir levels, to help ensure optimum power generation

Though a flood alert has been sounded in Himachal Pradesh following incessant rains, the increase in water flow into dams means more power generation in the coming days, in addition to more power for irrigation.

With heavy rains lashing Himachal Pradesh in June-end, the Sutlej and Beas rivers’ upper catchment areas were swollen leading to an increase in inflow in rivers. This led to an increase in Bhakra and Pong levels by 15 feet.

In the month of June, rainfall in Himachal Pradesh and Punjab has been surplus by over 25  per cent, leading to an increase in inflow in reservoirs of Bhakra Dam, Pong Dam from Beas and Sutlej rivers.

“The good inflow means there will be more water to spare for irrigation in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan and also more power generation during the summer,” said a senior official of Punjab State Power Corporation Limited.

The filling season of reservoirs at Bhakra, Pong and Ranjit Sagar Dam starts from June 21 and ends on September 20. The reservoir level at Bhakra, Pong and Ranjit Sagar are all dependent upon the rainfall in the catchment areas of the Beas, Sutlej and Ravi rivers. “The water level in the Bhakra, Ranjit Sagar and Pong dams is crucial for irrigation and power generation in the region. These three dams have a combined irrigation potential of 1,024 lakh hectares and an installed hydropower generation capacity of 2,375 MW,” says former chief engineer VK Gupta.

On June 20, the reservoir level in Gobind Sagar at Bhakra was 1560.46 feet against last year’s level of 1585.65 feet, down by about 25 feet.  Today, the water level is 1575.45 feet, showing an upward trend of 15 feet. The water inflow at the start of the filling season was 34,277 cusecs. Today, it is 44,627 cusecs and yesterday, it was 47,100 cusecs.

At Pong Dam today, the water level is 1289.90 feet against last year’s level of 1308.54 feet. The water level was 1305.5, an increase of 15 feet from the start of the filling season. Last year, it was 1,306 feet on the corresponding day. The water inflow has increased to 81,699 cusecs from 12,015 cusecs in the last 10 days.

At Ranjit Sagar Dam, the water level is 505.58 meters against the last year’s level of 504.04 meters, above by 1.5 meters.  Today, water level is 505.17 meters and it was 501.99 meters on corresponding day last year. The water inflow at Ranjit Sagar Dam is around 11,336 cusecs  against 10,070 cusecs at the start of the filling season.

Punjab