SJVN has signed an MoU with the Bihar government for the development of the 1,000 MW Hathidah Durgawati Pumped Storage Project and other PSPs in Patna.

A spokesperson for SJVN said here on Tuesday that Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Vijay Kumar Sinha, Minister of Energy and Planning Development Department Bijendra Prasad Yadav, Minister of Industries and Tourism Nitish Mishra, and SJVN Chairman and Managing Director Raj Kumar Choudhary, along with other senior officers of SJVN, were present during the signing of the MoU.

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The MoU was signed by SJVN BDE General Manager Mukesh Kumar Sharma and Bihar government’s Department of Industries Secretary Bandana Preyasi.

The development of PSPs in Bihar will create direct and indirect employment for 5,000 persons and an investment of about Rs 10,000 crore, the spokesperson said.

In August 2022, the Ministry of Power, Government of India, appointed SJVN as the nodal agency for developing Pumped Storage Projects (PSPs) in Bihar. Following this, the Secretary (Energy), Government of Bihar, allotted four PSPs to SJVN on August 22, 2022, named Telharkund PSP (400 MW), Sinafdar PSP (345 MW), Panchgotia PSP (225 MW) and Hathidah Durgawati PSP (1600 MW), he informed.

After conducting ranking studies of these projects, SJVN prepared a Feasibility Study Report (FSR) for the most viable project, Hathidah Durgawati PSP, with a proposed capacity of 1,000 MW, he added.

“Proposed on river Durgawati in District Kaimur, Bihar, the Hathidah Durgawati PSP, with an installed capacity of 1000 MW (4×250 MW), is designed to generate a daily peak energy of 6.325 Million Units (MU) and an annual peak energy of 2308.65 MU. The estimated project cost is Rs 5,663 crore, with a levelized tariff of Rs 9.39 per kWh (assuming a pumping energy rate of Rs 3 per kWh), based on February 2024 price levels,” the spokesperson said.

Currently, SJVN is developing about 12,000 MW of PSPs in various states such as Maharashtra, Karnataka, Mizoram, and Himachal Pradesh, he added.