It has decided to expedite construction works of Upper Seti (127 MW) and Budhi Gandaki (600 MW) that have long been awaiting construction.[break]
This decision has been made in the wake of the situation where prolonged power cuts are projected to continue for at least the next five years. The Ministry of Energy has projected power cut of up to 14 hours a day this year that is said to worsen up to 20 hours in 2014.
“An interim arrangement to ease load-shedding problem will be to build storage-type projects that will ultimately be beneficial in the long run,” said Jibendra Jha, executive director of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA).
Currently, Kulekhani A (60 MW) and B (32 MW) are the only reservoir-type power plants in Nepal.
Jha added, “NEA has plans to begin construction works for Upper Seti and Budhi Gandaki by 2012.”
The country´s electricity generation is largely dominated by run-of-river projects. Although these projects can generate power as per their installed capacities during wet seasons, power generation during dry seasons falls below one-sixth of their total capacities.
Rajendra Kishor Chhetri, under-secretary at the Ministry of Energy, attributes this problem to reduction of water flow in the rivers during dry seasons.
“If we had three to four projects like Kulekhani, load-shedding problem would not have worsened to this extent,” Chettri told Republica, adding reservoir-type projects can be of great help during dry seasons and peak hours of the day (5-7 am and 7-9 pm) when power consumption is very high.
Ministry officials opine that storage-type projects are quite feasible in the context of Nepal as its topography has been blessed with snow-covered mountains that can serve the purpose of virtual dams.
Earlier, NEA had floated a proposal to build additional thermal plants and import more power from India to end the power crisis. But the proposal was dismissed as per unit of electricity generated from such plants could cost as high as Rs 22. Moreover, such plants maintenance is costly.
The idea of importing more power from India is limited by inadequate transmission lines. Nepal currently imports about 130 MW from the southern neighbor. For additional import, construction of Mujaffarpur-Dhalkebar (130 km) and Duhabi-Hetauda-Butwal (300 km) projects, which have not even gone through survey stages, need to be completed.
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