4.5 MW Grouped Small Hydropower Projects For Grid System By Bhoruka Power Corporation Limited In Karnataka State, India.

Audit Analysis

A 4.5 MW grouped small hydropower project in Karnataka, India, with VVB-confirmed additionality and a jurisdictional grid baseline, but undermined by 11 non-conformances across two sites, a 25% reduction in verified emissions relative to the 2011 monitoring claim, an unaddressed leakage justification, and multiple cross-document contradictions on baseline method, safeguards, and grievance mechanisms. The project is not CORSIA-eligible and carries no stated buffer pool, leaving permanence and data-reliability concerns unresolved.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠The 2011 monitoring report claimed 35,594 tCO2, but the 2013 verification report verified only 26,723 tCO2 — a 25% reduction that was not explained in the extracted record.
• ⚠Leakage deduction is 0% and the 2021 verification report records the justification as 'not addressed', while the 2013 report stated 'deemed negligible' — the more recent document indicates the issue was never properly resolved.
• ⚠The validation report (2009) describes the baseline as project-specific, while the monitoring report (2013) and the 2021 verification report treat it as jurisdictional — an unresolved methodological contradiction.
• ⚠The oxidation factor used in project emissions was incorrectly taken as coal (value 1.0) rather than diesel, as flagged in the verification report corrective actions.
• ⚠Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) was not conducted, and benefit-sharing is described in the 2011 monitoring report but absent from the 2021 verification report.

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