The 900-Mw Purulia Pumped Storage Project (PSPP), the biggest project of its kind in India, is set to mitigate the peak power deficit in the country by utilising the low-cost excess power available during periods of low demand.

It will also boost the industrial drive of Purulia district, which is poised to witness operations of many steel projects in the coming years.

"The project will script the transformation of Purulia district of West Bengal where Adhunik Group, Balaji Group and Shyam Steel have proposed to set up steel plants. The mega project will also illuminate villages in the district," Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said, while dedicating the PSPP, the fourth biggest pumped storage project in the world, to the nation.

The Rs 2,953-crore (Rs 29.53 billion) project of West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company Ltd (WBSEDCL), located in Ajodhya Hills in Bagmundi village of Purulia district, is being funded as a loan assistance from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC). The project comprises four units, each of 225 Mw and all of them have already been

put into operation.

This project will also harness rainwater for generation of electricity and will help improve the thermal-hydel power ratio in the state, which currently stands at 96:4, Bhattacharjee added.

Pumped hydro storage is a large energy storage technique where water is pumped from a lower reservoir to an upper reservoir utilising the low-cost power available during lean periods. This is then utilised to generate power using turbines during the peak demands.

Each day power demand fluctuates significantly between the night time off-peak period and the peak period of day and evening.

Pumped storage power plants help achieve maximum efficiency for the power generating system and also to maintain power system stability as a whole.

Bhattacharjee said the Purulia project would also help boost eco-tourism in the Ajodhya Hills region and called for setting up a tourist office, hotels and restaurants and strengthening road infrastructure in the region.

He also called for providing suitable training to the local youth of the region so that they could be absorbed in all the upcoming projects.