Notwithstanding the recent progress made by the power ministry that is striving to meet the burgeoning power demand of the country, an immense amount of hydropower potential, worth 98,953.2 MW of new generation capacity, still lies unutilized, as of August 31, 2010. This yet-to-be-developed capacity accounts for 68.9% of the gross identified hydel potential of 1,45,320 MW for the country, excluding projects with likely capacities lower than 25 MW. - A region-wise analysis reveals that the geologically hostile north-eastern region leads the tally for unexploited potential, with 93.16%, followed by the northern and eastern regions, with 59.40% and 50.70%, respectively.
- The western region has the least unutilized potential, 26.80%. The southern region has 37.46% of its hydropower resources still untouched.
- Cumulatively, only 32,300.8 MW of capacity has been installed, so far, in the country, while another 14,066 MW, or 9.68% of the total, is presently under construction.
- However, these figures exclude projects that are taken care of by the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, as well as the operational pump storage schemes, worth 4,785.6 MW.
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