KATHMANDU: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) is planning to add 255 megawatts (MW) of power in its system within a month through import and by evacuating power commissioned by independent power producers (IPPs). An additional 75 MW of hydroelectric power developed by IPPs will be added to the national grid and 180 MW additional import from India will be realised in a month, which will be instrumental in Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA)’s initiative to make the country load-shedding free. Power commissioned by various projects namely, Upper Marsyangdi A (25 MW), Upper Madi (25 MW), Hewa Khola A (14.9 MW), Daraudi Khola A (6 MW), and Tungun-Thosne (4.36 MW) will be added to the national grid within mid-January, according to NEA.
On the other hand, power-strapped Nepal has been also preparing to import more power from India to end the rolling blackouts. The country’s peak demand hovers at around 1,350 MW against the total installed capacity of the domestic hydropower plants, which is around 850 MW. And during the winter season, the generation capacity of ‘run-of-the-river’ based projects declines to around one-third of the installed capacity. Except for 92 MW Kulekhani, all the hydropower projects built by NEA or by the private sector are ‘run-of-the-river’ (RoR) projects.
NEA currently has been importing 270 MW of power from India via Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur (80 MW), Kataiya-Kushwaha (130 MW), Tanakpur-Mahendranagar (30 MW), Ramnagar-Gandak (25 MW) and around 5 MW from other different points. NEA is preparing to import an additional 80 MW from Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur by the end of December, according to Prabal Adhikari, chief of Power Trade Department of NEA. “Another circuit is being developed at Kataiya-Kushwaha under the grant agreement of the Indian government to import additional 50 MW and another 50 MW from Raxaul-Parwanipur.”
The country would need to import power from India till 2020-21 during winter months because the country will have power deficit in winters though a large-scale peaking RoR project — 456 MW Upper Tamakoshi Hydroelectric Project — is expected to be completed by 2018, according to NEA officials.
The installation of Kataiya-Kushwaha additional circuit is also expected to be completed within December. As per Adhikari, the country will, thus, be able to import around 450 MW power from India this winter season. NEA has said that it will take another two-and-a-half months for the Dhalkebar substation to be upgraded to 220kv from the existing 132kv, but the country will import additional 80 MW power by the end of this month after installation of high capacity transformer in Muzaffarpur.
