18 MW Kemphole Mini Hydel Scheme (KMHS), by International Power Corporation Limited, India

Audit Analysis

The 18 MW Kemphole Mini Hydel Scheme is a VCS-registered renewable energy project with VVB-confirmed additionality and no material findings, but its documentation is undermined by 13 corrective actions, a baseline last reassessed in 2010, and multiple cross-document contradictions. The project delivered only ~44% of its pro-rata ex-ante expectation for the elapsed monitoring period, which is conservative but raises questions about the original baseline assumptions. Overall, the project is functional but carries moderate data-quality and methodology-justification risks.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠13 corrective actions were raised in the 2021 verification report, including inconsistencies in electricity generation and grid emission factor, methodology choice not fully justified, project boundary unclear, and monitoring plan not aligned with the methodology
• ⚠Baseline was last reassessed in 2010 and the grid emission factor (0.8555) dates from 2009, meaning the key quantification parameters are over a decade old at the time of the 2021 verification
• ⚠Contradiction in baseline method: the 2019 verification report describes a 'project' baseline while the 2021 monitoring report describes a 'jurisdictional' baseline, creating ambiguity about which approach underpins the credit calculation

Credit Vintages