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PRIMRE/Databases/Projects Database/Projects/Chilla Canal
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Chilla Canal
In 2011 New Energy commissioned its first project outside of North America with a 50 kW pilot plant in Northern India. The project was for DLZ Power Private Limited (DLZ) and consisted of two 25 kW systems installed in a canal. The Chilla Canal is a power plant supply canal that originates on the Ganges River and carries water 14 km to a 140 MW hydropower plant. It is situated near Dehradun within the Rajaji National Park in the state of Uttarakhand. This is a concrete lined trapezoidal canal designed to transport up to 545 cubic meters of water per second to the existing hydroelectric power plant. Water within the canal is also used for irrigation purposes within the region. The Chilla project presented special challenges not experienced before. The electrical grid at this northern location was weak and unstable, often going down several times a day. Ambient temperatures were as high as 45 C causing the equipment to run hotter than normal. The frequent starts and stops of the systems due to grid outages resulted in a high degree of strain on system components, so it was decided to incorporate electrical braking in parallel with mechanical braking, as well as a change in control logic so that the units were put in an idle mode when the grid was down by dumping generated energy through a resistor bank. In future it would also be possible to incorporate a secondary storage facility to capture the lost energy during the grid outage. The Chilla project has given us a wealth of experience in understanding how our equipment responds under very different operating conditions, with access to a very different workforce with limited access to equipment, in a geographically distant location.
Additional Information
Project Status
Is the project actively being planned or is deployed in the water (active)? Or was the project canceled or completed (inactive)?
Inactive
Project Life Cycle
Project Progress through life cycle:
- Planned: Project has identified a deployment location and is preparing for deployment
- Operational: Project is deployed in the water and is active
- Completed: Project was previously deployed in the water
- Decommissioned: Installation has been fully removed in accordance with regulations
- Canceled: Project was canceled before being deployed in the water
Completed
Max Rated Power Capacity
The maximum amount of electricity that can be produced by project, based on available resources and device nameplate capacity.
0.05 MW
Operational Start Year
2011
Project Start Year
2011
Energy Resource
- Riverine
Project Scale
Full-scale
Number of Devices
2
Grid Connectivity
Grid Connected
Waterbody
Ganges River
Site Characteristics
Geographic characterization for the project location:
- Open Ocean: Main body of ocean, not enclosed or partially enclosed by land
- Coastal: Open water near the coast, spanning between land and shelf boundary
- Enclosed Bay: water that is partially surrounded by land, with a mouth open to larger water
- Constricted Channel: A channel where water flows quickly due to narrowing by the land
- River: Water flowing from land towards a larger body of water
Constricted Channel
Country
India
Citation Formats
“Chilla Canal.” Marine Energy Projects Database: Projects, PRIMRE, United States Department of Energy, https://openei.org/wiki/PRIMRE/Databases/Projects_Database/Projects/Chilla_Canal. Accessed <day> <monthRoman> <year>.
Marine Energy Projects Database: Projects. <year>. "Chilla Canal." Accessed <monthRoman> <day>, <year>. https://openei.org/wiki/PRIMRE/Databases/Projects_Database/Projects/Chilla_Canal.
Last modified: 8 April 2025