General · EdgepediaSeptember 17, 202612 min read

Hydroelectric power in India

Hydroelectric power in India is electricity generated from the country's rivers, from large storage and run-of-river stations above 25 MW, from small hydro of up to 25 MW, and from pumped storage plants that move water between reservoirs to store energy. As of July 2025 installed large hydro capacity was 49,628 MW, 10.1% of India's total generating capacity, with small hydro adding 5,109 MW (1.0%); by June 2026 operating pumped-storage capacity had reached about 7,425 MW.¹^•²

Key fact	Detail
Installed capacity	Large hydro 49,628 MW (10.1% of all capacity) and small hydro 5,109 MW (1.0%) as of July 2025; about 7,425 MW of pumped storage operating by June 2026¹^•²
Generation	134.05 billion units in 2023-24 (9% of generation, down from 11%), recovering to 149 BU in 2024-25 and 167 BU in 2025-26³^•⁴^•²
Identified potential	133,410 MW of exploitable large hydro plus 176,280 MW of pumped storage per the CEA 2017-23 reassessment; the Ministry of Power cites about 145,000 MW of hydropower potential⁵^•⁶
Share history	About 40% of installed capacity at independence, about 25% in the 2000s, and roughly 10-12% today⁷
Tariff range	Levellised tariff of Rs 4.60/kWh at Rs 100 million/MW capital cost and 55% PLF, rising to Rs 12.60/kWh at Rs 150 million/MW and 30% PLF (ICRA)⁸
Pumped storage	7,425 MW operating and about 15,870 MW under construction as of June 2026; CEA roadmap targets 100 GW by 2035-36²^•⁹
Policy status	Large hydro above 25 MW reclassified as renewable, with a hydropurchase obligation, ISTS charge waivers and PSP guidelines issued from 2019 onward⁵

Overview

Hydro supplies roughly a tenth of India's generating capacity and a comparable share of its electricity. In 2024-25 the regulator's market report put the capacity mix at 52.0% thermal, 36.3% renewable energy sources, 10.0% hydro, and 1.7% nuclear.¹⁰ Generation is more variable than capacity because it depends on rainfall: hydro produced 12.5% of India's electricity in 2022-23, then fell 17.76% to 134.05 billion units in 2023-24 as erratic rainfall cut its generation share to 9%.³^•¹¹ The 2023-24 fall was the steepest in nearly four decades, even as total generation rose 10.3%.¹²

Grid balancing. Hydro's principal modern value is flexibility. On 5 April 2020, when demand plunged by about 31 GW during the COVID-19 lockdown, hydro generation was cut by over 68% in a short period, without which grid stability would have been compromised.¹¹

History

Hydroelectric development in India predates independence. Early stations included the 90 MW Bhira plant (1927), the 48 MW Jogindernagar (Uhl) station, and the 14 MW Pykara plant, both commissioned in 1932, followed by Mettur (40 MW, 1937) and Papanasam (1944). Installed hydro capacity at independence stood at 508 MW, rising to about 1,920 MW by 1960.¹³ Until the 1950s, central grids were established in Mysore and Madras State (later Tamil Nadu), which led other states in hydroelectricity production even before mega dams were built.¹⁴

After independence, multipurpose dam building became a signature of state planning; Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru described the large dams and hydro projects as "the modern temples of India".¹³ Hydropower's share of installed capacity was nearly 40% at independence, held through the 1980s, fell to about 25% in the first decade of the 2000s and to about 12% at current levels, even as absolute capacity grew from 500 MW in 1947 to nearly 47,000 MW by 2022.⁷ The Prime Minister's 50,000 MW hydropower initiative of 2004 was the first major concerted effort to prioritize renewable energy in India.⁷ Since the end of the Eighth Plan in 1997, India nearly doubled hydropower capacity to 41 GW, roughly 10% of the electricity supply.¹⁵

Potential and river basins

The first systematic assessment, by the Central Water and Power Commission in 1953-59, placed India's potential at 42,100 MW at 60% load factor; the CEA reassessment of 1978-87 raised this to 84,044 MW at 60% load factor, with economically exploitable potential of 148,701 MW.¹³ The most recent CEA reassessment, carried out during 2017-2023, found exploitable large hydro potential of 133,410 MW and identified pumped storage potential of 176,280 MW.⁵ The Ministry of Power's FAQ gives a rounder figure of around 145,000 MW, able to meet about 85,000 MW of demand at 60% load factor.⁶

Basin distribution. The bulk of the potential lies in four basins: Brahmaputra (66 GW), Indus (34 GW), Ganga (21 GW) and the rivers of South India (24 GW), with the largest untapped capacity in Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim.¹³ Only about a third has been harnessed: CEA estimates put tapped potential at 32% of 145,320 MW.³ Small hydro potential is assessed at about 19,749 MW, against 5,003.25 MW installed as of March 2024.³

Technology and pumped storage

Indian hydro spans three designs: storage dams that hold reservoirs for seasonal and daily regulation, run-of-river schemes that use natural flow with limited pondage, and small hydro of up to 25 MW. Pumped storage plants (PSPs) add a fourth category: they pump water to an upper reservoir when power is cheap or surplus and generate when it is scarce. Because of hydraulic and electrical losses in the pumping cycle, PSPs are net consumers of electricity, but they provide load balancing and ancillary services; globally about 161 GW of pumped hydro acts as the world's largest "water battery", accounting for over 94% of installed energy storage capacity.¹¹

Operating fleet. In 2022 India had 4,745 MW of pumped hydro storage capacity, of which 3,305 MW was actually used in pumped storage mode.¹⁶ As of December 2024, eight on-river PSPs totalling 4,745.6 MW were in operation but only six plants (3,305.6 MW) operated in pumped mode, with 4,850 MW on-river and 3,120 MW off-river capacity under construction.⁸ By June 2026 about 7,425.6 MW of PSP capacity was operating and about 15,870 MW was under construction.² The CEA's roadmap estimates total pumped storage potential at about 267 GW, comprising 58 GW of on-stream (on-river) and 209 GW of off-stream PSPs.¹⁷

Policy, ownership and regulation

Ownership is split among state utilities, central public-sector companies and private developers. As of January 2025, of the roughly 52 GW of hydro counted within the 212.17 GW renewable total, 58% was state-owned (27.29 GW), 34% central (15.7 GW) and 8% private (3.93 GW); central players include NHPC, THDC and SJVN.⁸ Hydropower charges take the form of capacity and primary energy charges based on an Annual Fixed Cost including interest on loan capital and depreciation.⁶

The 2019 reclassification. Before 2019, large hydro above 25 MW was not counted as renewable, which excluded it from renewable purchase obligations. The government declared large hydropower projects (above 25 MW) a renewable energy source, notified a hydropurchase obligation (HPO) as a non-solar renewable purchase obligation, and introduced tariff rationalization with a 40-year project life, 18-year debt repayment and 2% escalating tariff, alongside budgetary support for flood moderation and enabling infrastructure.⁵^•¹¹

Pumped-storage policy since 2023. Guidelines to promote PSP development were issued on 10 April 2023, covering ancillary services monetization, GST reimbursement, land-fee exemptions, no upfront premium and use of exhausted mines as PSP sites; in June 2023 the DPR concurrence timeline was cut from 125 to 90 days.⁵^•³ In February 2025 the Ministry of Power released tariff-based competitive bidding guidelines for procuring storage capacity from PSPs, and a budgetary support scheme for enabling infrastructure with a total outlay of Rs 124.61 billion runs from 2024-25 to 2031-32, supporting 15,000 MW of PSPs.¹⁸ In August 2025, CEA concurrence was required only for schemes with capex above Rs 30 billion, with off-stream closed-loop PSPs exempt regardless of capex, and a 100% ISTS charges waiver was confirmed for hydro PSPs awarded on or before 30 June 2028.¹⁸ Later changes cut the concurrence timeline from 90 to 50 days, removed inter-state clearance and eased environmental appraisal.¹⁹

By the numbers

Capacity trajectory. Large hydro stood at 46,928 MW in March 2024, 46,968.17 MW in January 2025, 50,108.16 MW in August 2025; operating pumped-storage capacity reached about 7,425 MW in June 2026; small hydro moved from 5,003.25 MW (March 2024) to 5,182 MW (June 2026).³^•⁸^•¹⁸^•²
Additions. Only 1,229 MW of large hydro was added during 2019-20 to 2023-24, including just 78 MW in 2023-24; 2024-25 saw 799.99 MW added.³^•¹⁸
Generation. 134.05 BU (2023-24), 149 BU (2024-25, up 10.8%), 167 BU (2025-26, up 12.5%).³^•⁴^•²
Cost. ICRA estimates a levellised tariff of Rs 4.60/kWh at Rs 100 million per MW of capital cost and a 55% plant load factor, rising to Rs 12.60/kWh at Rs 150 million per MW and 30% PLF, assuming 70:30 debt-equity at a 9% cost of debt under CERC's 2024-29 regulations; the range shows how sensitive hydro economics are to construction cost overruns and low utilization.⁸
Targets. The National Electricity Plan 2023 envisions 10,814 MW of hydro and 2,700 MW of PSPs by 2027, plus 9,982 MW of hydro and 19,240 MW of PSPs by 2032; pumped storage requirements are projected at 7 GW by 2027, 27 GW by 2032 and 90 GW by 2047.⁸ Government communications put hydro capacity at 48 GW in FY 2025 against a 55 GW target for FY 2030.²⁰

How it compares with solar, wind and thermal

Solar has overtaken hydro decisively in capacity: as of July 2025 solar stood at 119,017 MW (24.3% of installed capacity) against hydro's 10.1%, and within the renewable fleet solar constitutes 61.3% of capacity, wind 29.0%, bio-power 6.7% and small hydro 3.0%.¹^•¹⁰ India's total capacity reached 472 GW by April 2025, with coal at 219 GW (46%), solar 108 GW (23%), wind 51 GW (11%) and hydro 48 GW (10.1%).²¹ Globally, hydro remained the largest low-carbon electricity source in 2024 at 14.3% of the mix, but wind (8.1%) and solar (6.9%) together overtook it that year.²²

What hydro retains is dispatchability. The 5 April 2020 episode, in which hydro output was cut by over 68% within a short period to absorb a 31 GW demand drop, illustrates a balancing role that variable solar and wind do not provide on demand without storage.¹¹ Ministry of Power guidelines target 26.7 GW of PSPs and 47.2 GW of battery energy storage to integrate renewable capacity by 2032.²¹

Safety, environment and controversy

Large dams in India have carried substantial social costs. The Sardar Sarovar dam on the Narmada river was at the center of a controversy lasting over a decade, culminating in a Supreme Court of India judgment on 18 October 2000 concerning displacement and human rights.²³ The last two decades of the twentieth century also generated some of the most intense and well-organized anti-dam movements.²⁴ Large storage projects can displace people and disrupt river ecology, and can contribute to deforestation and biodiversity loss; Himalayan sites face elevated disaster risk.¹¹

Himalayan hazards. The 2013 Uttarakhand floods, driven by heavy rain, snowmelt and a glacial lake outburst flood, damaged or partly destroyed more than 20 hydroelectric projects.²⁵ The February 2021 Chamoli disaster, sudden flooding of the Dhauliganga, Rishiganga and Alaknanda rivers, destroyed two hydropower projects and damaged two more.²⁵^•¹¹

The 2023 Sikkim GLOF. On the night of 3-4 October 2023, a breach of South Lhonak Lake in North Sikkim sent a glacial lake outburst flood down the Teesta, collapsing the upstream Teesta-III dam at Chungthang and crippling NHPC's 510 MW Teesta-V run-of-river station, which NHPC estimated suffered flood damage of Rs 10.76 billion (Rs 1,075.97 crore); a further landslide over the tail race tunnel outlet on 20 August 2024 caused damage of Rs 3.277 billion (Rs 327.67 crore).²⁶ Teesta-V, commissioned in 2008 as a run-of-river scheme with diurnal storage, generated nothing for two consecutive financial years; a parliamentary committee recorded generation loss exceeding 3,770 MU over two years.²⁶^•²⁷ The station returned to full capacity when its third 170 MW unit resumed commercial generation on 16 July 2026, nearly three years after the flood.²⁶ Heavy rains in July 2023 also caused shutdowns and damage across projects, with revenue loss exceeding INR 1.6 billion per the CEA.¹¹

Recent developments and outlook

A commissioning wave followed the slow 2019-2024 period. Projects commissioned during 2025-26 include NHPC's Subansiri Lower Units 1-3 (3x250 MW), THDC's Tehri PSP Units 1 and 2 (2x250 MW), Greenko Energies' Pinnapuram HPS Unit 5 (240 MW), JSW Energy's Kutehr Units 1-3 (3x80 MW) and NHPC's Parbati-II Unit 4 (200 MW); in FY 2026-27 to June 2026, Tehri PSP Unit 4, Subansiri Lower Unit 4 and JSW's Tidong-I units followed.²

Storage-led future. The CEA roadmap targets 100 GW of pumped storage capacity by 2035-36 and prioritizes off-stream closed-loop PSPs away from rivers for faster execution and minimal environmental impact, with transmission planning for PSP evacuation and viability measures including bidding guidelines and transmission-charge waivers.⁹ Trade reporting projects annual PSP additions climbing from about 3 GW (2025-27) to 10-13 GW per year, against 224 GW of identified pumped storage potential and an aim of 50 GW by 2032.²⁸ NHPC alone is developing around 20,000 MW of pumped storage capacity across multiple states.²⁷

References

Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 15, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026