Power generation resumed after eight days at the 1,500-MW Nathpa-Jhakri project this afternoon. Engineers of the Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam (SJVN) decided to start the project after the discharge in the Sutlej started declining after attaining the peak of 1,550 cumecs last evening. The first unit of 250 MW started functioning at noon and four units out of total six had been made operational by the evening. The project was shut down on June 11 after the level of silt suddenly shot up to 10,500 ppm in the Spiti river due to melting of accumulated snow. In all, the closure has caused a loss of about 300 million units (worth about Rs 72 crore) to the SJVN. Meanwhile, its huge hydel potential of 20,000 MW notwithstanding, the hill state will have to bank on thermal power to meet the peak demand during the winter. With most of the projects already allotted or earmarked for the private sector and central agencies, the state will require at least 1000 MW of power even after exploitation of the entire hydel potential. The peak requirement has almost doubled from 550 MW to over 1050 MW over the past four years. As hydel generation declines to about 20 per cent during the lean winter months the state will require five-times the installed capacity. Engineers of the Himachal Power Corporation (HPC) anticipate a demand for 5000 MW over the next 15 years which makes it evident that the state will have to set up thermal power projects to meet the winter shortfall. The corporation has drawn up a long-term plan to generate 5,000 MW by 2022. In the first phase, 3010 MW of installed capacity will be created by 2017. The corporation will generate hydel power to the tune of 1500 MW on its own and execute projects with an aggregate generation capacity of 500 MW in public-private-partnership. Besides, it also plans to generate 10 MW of solar power. All this will not be enough to meet the peak winter requirement and to bridge the peak demand and supply gap, the corporation proposes to set up thermal plants to generate 1000 MW of power. Out of the total 20,564 MW of identified hydel potential 6393 MW has already been harnessed and projects with an aggregate capacity of 6120 MW were under various stages of implementation.