UPSC Mains 2013 · GS III · Q17(b) · 5 marks · 100 words

What do you understand by Run-of-river hydroelectricity project ? How is it different from any other hydroelectricity project ?

हिन्दी में

जल वृष्टि पोषित नदी (Run-of-river) जल विद्युत परियोजना से आप क्या समझते हैं ? वह किसी अन्य जल विद्युत परियोजना से किस प्रकार भिन्न होती है ?

Energy

How a topper answered the closest question

Toppers wrote this one in a test series: “What are run of the river hydroelectric projects? How far can run of the river hydroelectric projects balance ecological conservation with socio-economic development?”

Kunal RastogiAIR 15 · CSE 2023 · 142 wordsTheir whole copy

Opening · a definition

Run of the River Hydroelectric project use the power of naturally flowing water without the use of reservoir to create sustainable energy.

Body · points and prose

Diagram
Left side drawing: Labeled "Runoff River", "Dam", "original river". Shows a dam on a flowing river. Right side drawing: Labeled "Dam", "Reservoir", "Reduced Flow". Shows a large reservoir behind a dam. Text beneath: "Small Hydropower Projects." (under left) "Hoover Dam" (under right)

Run of River Dam : balance ecological conservation with socio-economic development

  1. Electricity generation without disturbing the minimum ecological water flow.

  2. Small scale dams (under 5MW) do not cause large scale ecological damage → deforestation → killing of biodiversity

  3. Run-of-River projects tackle the local electricity requirement without tribal displacement

  4. do not adversely affect the local fauna. eg > Susu Dolphin

  5. does not change the course of river which have unintended consequence eg > Tapovan dam near Joshimath

Limitation

  1. Very low electricity production
  2. Economically unviable
  3. May not be Multi-purpose.
  4. disturbs the indigenous population.

Close · a source

Thus, Chopra Committee recommendation of balancing Run-of-River dams via indigenous methods is suitable mechanism to ensure principles of Deep Ecology

3 more toppers’ answers to this question, part by part, and how they all approached it: open the question.

Toppers’ answers to other close questions

Source: UPSC, Civil Services (Main) Examination 2013, General Studies Paper III, Q17(b). The paper on upsc.gov.in. Themes and links to toppers’ answers are by UPSC Grade, not by UPSC.