The award recognizes hydropower projects which have demonstrated their environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance by undergoing a detailed assessment by independent assessors.
During its assessment, NHPC Limited’s 510 MW Teesta-V project, located on the Teesta River in Sikkim, Northern India, met or exceeded international good practice across all 20 performance criteria using the Hydropower Sustainability Tools.
‘Inspire us to achieve higher standards’
Chairman and Managing Director Abhay Kumar Singh said,“This is a proud moment for NHPC and will encourage and inspire us to achieve higher standards in sustainability for hydropower project development and operation.
“On behalf of NHPC Limited, I express our sincere gratitude to the International Hydropower Association for awarding the prestigious IHA Blue Planet Prize to NHPC’s Teesta-V Hydroelectric Power station.”
The Teesta-V project met proven international best practice in six topics, including project benefits, public health, cultural heritage, erosion and sedimentation, and asset reliability and efficiency. In addition, the project exceeded international good practice in nine topics and met basic good practice in the remainder.
The independent assessment report highlights how NHPC Limited has designed and implemented processes to manage its impacts on local communities and the environment. In doing so, the project has provided significant positive benefits, including providing low-cost electricity and employment to the region.
Eddie Rich, Chief Executive of IHA said, “We are delighted to award the 2021 IHA Blue Planet Prize to NHPC Limited’s Teesta-V station. The project has demonstrated a real commitment to transparency and good practice, and can hopefully act as a model in the region. No project is perfect and the path to sustainability can sometimes be bumpy, so we welcome NHPC Limited’s passion for sustainable development and encourage them to pursue this ambition beyond the recognition of the IHA Blue Planet Prize.”
Teesta-V is part of a cascade of hydropower projects along the Teesta River designed to supply power to Sikkim’s Energy & Power Department and other state-owned distribution companies in India’s eastern region.
The sustainability assessment was conducted by a team of independent accredited assessors using the Hydropower Sustainability Assessment Protocol (HSAP) from January to June 2019.
Dr. Joerg Hartmann, lead assessor of the project said, “This assessment helped NHPC identify strengths as well as weaknesses in the Teesta-V project. These lessons can now be applied across the company’s entire project portfolio, and because NHPC chose to be transparent with the results, across the entire Indian hydropower sector.
“In fact, some of the best practices identified in the assessment – such as conducting a follow-up Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) ten years after project commissioning, to verify initial predictions of impacts and the effectiveness of mitigation measures – should be considered by project owners everywhere.”
