Bucakkisla HPP Run-Of-River Hydro Project

Audit Analysis

The Bucakkisla HPP is a registered VCS run-of-river hydro project with a confirmed investment additionality test and a well-known VVB (Applus+), but it is undermined by a 0% leakage deduction with no justification in the most recent verification report, a significant unaddressed capacity increase from 33.5 MW to 41 MW, and a major discrepancy between two verification reports on verified emissions (48,801 vs 389,801 tCO₂). The project delivered roughly 58% of the pro-rata lifetime expectation for the elapsed monitoring period, which is within plausible range for hydro variability but warrants scrutiny.

Project Description

Red Flags

• ⚠Two verification reports from the same year (Jan 2022 and Aug 2022) report vastly different verified ERR figures: 389,801 tCO₂ vs 48,801 tCO₂ — a factor-of-eight discrepancy that is unexplained in the extracted record.
• ⚠Leakage deduction is 0% and the most recent verification report (Aug 2022) states the justification as 'not addressed', while an earlier verification report (Jan 2022) called it 'deemed negligible' — the treatment is inconsistent and insufficiently documented.
• ⚠A capacity increase from 33.50 MW to 41.00 MW was flagged as a corrective action (CAR 01) with potential impact on methodology applicability, additionality, and baseline, yet no resolution is documented.
• ⚠No buffer pool is in place and no reversal events data is available, leaving permanence risk unquantified for a project whose infrastructure (dam, turbines) could be decommissioned or repurposed.

Credit Vintages