NHPC’s Teesta-V (510 MW) Power Station, in Sikkim has been rated as an example of international good practice in hydropower sustainability, according to an independent report by the accredited assessors of International Hydropower Association (IHA).

The 510 MW power station, owned and operated by NHPC Limited, was reviewed by a team of accredited assessors using the Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol. The report has now been published and available online as  https://www.hydropower.org/news/indian-hydropower-project-an-example-of-good-practice-in-sustainability 

The assessment, the first of its kind in India, was conducted between January and June 2019 and involved two visits to the project area, with stakeholder interviews from 4-13 March. According to the report, Teesta-V met or exceeded international good practice across all 20 performance criteria. It met proven best practice in its management of asset reliability and efficiency, financial viability, project benefits, cultural heritage, public health, and erosion and sedimentation. Teesta-V is also the first hydropower project globally to publish results against new performance criteria covering its resilience to climate change and mitigation of carbon emissions, after the Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol (HSAP) was expanded in scope in 2018.

The Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol (HSAP) is the leading international tool for measuring the sustainability of hydropower projects, having been applied in more than 25 countries. It offers a way to benchmark the performance of a hydropower project against a comprehensive range of environmental, social, technical and governance criteria.