The 192MW run-of-river project is being built with an underground power house at the confluence of the Allain and Duhangan rivers, which are tributaries of the river Beas, near Manali in Kullu district of the state, and it is scheduled to be commissioned in mid-2008.
With a design head of 833m, the plant will house two 96MW vertical axis Pelton turbines. At the headwaters, the flow will be diverted by a barrage (gates and trench weir) and regulator (6.8m wide, two bays) leading to a vertical drop shaft. A headrace tunnel 3.4m high by 2.4m wide will convey the water to a 1.6km long pressure shaft leading to the turbines in the 58m by 21m by 28.2m power house.
The JV partners developing the project have already sold parts of the CDM credits through a forward contract to the Italian Carbon Fund. According to the current carbon credit spot market rates of Euro15-20 per tonne, the project's estimated total production of Certified Emissions Reductions (CERs) of about 0.5M per annum over a decade equates to about Euro7.5M-Euro10M per year, currently.
The project is being developed by Malana Power, a JV between the majority owner, the LNJ Bhilwara group, and its Norwegian partner, SN Power Invest. The Norwegian firm is an equal venture between the country's electricity company Statkraft and the state-funded risk capital investor Norfund.
The budget for the project is US$220M and the International Fiannce Corp (IFC) has given US$40M in debt funding and US$7M in equity to the project. Additional debt funding comes from other banks.
