Civil Insight: A Technical Magazine Volume 2 | Page 50

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STUDENTS’ SECTION
CIVIL INSIGHT 2018
POTENTIAL OF MICRO HYDROPOWER IN NEPAL
Aayush Tiwari
Student
BE in Civil Engineering
(4 th Year)
INTRODUCTION
Nepal is a landlocked country surrounded by China and India. Nepal has three large river systems: the Koshi
River system, the Gandaki River system and the Karnali River system.
The three main river systems in the country and their small tributaries offer Nepal the opportunity to produce
economic and technical power of about 43,000 MW though Nepal can potentially generate over 83,000 MW
of hydropower. If all the water resources are considered, Nepal can potentially generate over 90,000 MW
hydropower. Despite its huge hydropower potential, Nepal generates only about 847 MW of hydroelectricity
and more than half of its population don’t have access to electricity. Most of the power plants in Nepal are
fl uvial with available energy higher than the demand in the country during the monsoon season and defi cit
during the dry season.Despite having huge hydropower potential, only 1% energy need of Nepal is fulfi lled by
hydroelectricity. The energy mix of Nepal is dominated by fuel wood (68%), agricultural waste (15%), animal
dung (8%) and imported fossil fuel (8%).
Figure 1: Energy Consumption in Nepal
(Source: ippan.org.np)
MICRO HYDROPOWER (MHP)
Micro hydropower plants are the small-scale hydropower plants of capacity ranging from 5 kW to 100 kW. In
general, an MHP plant does not need dams or a reservoir as water is diverted directly from the river and then
conducted to a water turbine at a lower elevation through penstock. Micro hydro is in most cases “run-of-
river” and is one of the most cost- effective and environmentally benign energy technologies to be considered
for rural electrifi cation.
POTENTIAL OF MICRO HYDROPOWER IN NEPAL
The Nepalese micro hydropower plants are suitable in three dimensions of the sustainability framework:
ecology, economy and society. Ecologically, MHP does not cause signifi cant negative impacts, rather in some
cases it improves. Economically, the biggest advantage of MHP technology in Nepal is the creation of an
industrial base for long-term hydroelectric development. MHP has positive socio-economic impact in the rural
communities like lower consumption of fuel wood, extended study time for children, reduced drudgery for
women, increased economic activity due to productive end use and social participation.