Civil Insight: A Technical Magazine Volume 2 | Page 98

98
CIVIL INSIGHT 2018
INTERVIEW
concept wherein every house, meter will be changed
into smart meter so that payment and two-way
communication may be done online.
For quality supply, capacitor banks should be kept
wherever necessary, the voltage should be increased
in case of defi ciency, and distributed generation
should be employed.
For safety, starting from a few major cities, we
are trying to bring underground cables and fully
insulated conductors for overhead cables.
In the upcoming days, we are trying to increase
consumption and the demand, and will try to replace
the other sources of energy such as gas and fuels
with hydroelectricity. From next year, we will try to
manage the surplus energy during rainy seasons and
export electricity as well.
Overall, we are trying to gain better effi ciency, loss
reduction and more profi table ventures in the near
future.
Q. In the present scenario, Nepal has very
few PROR and Storage Hydropower plants.
Are there any plans to uplift the numbers?
We are trying to mix generation from various plants.
We are planning to make PROR as 35%, ROR as 30%
and reservoir as 35% for the contribution of total
energy in the long term. For this,
projects such as Upper Arun (800
MW) and Tamakoshi Hydropower
plant (456 MW) which are a
PROR projects, and Dudhkoshi
Hydropower plant (800 MW) which
is a reservoir-type hydropower plant
are being constructed. Electricity generated from
these projects may be used as gas replacement during
peak hours. We also have ongoing pumped-storage
plants research and studies. This will hopefully bring
fl exibility to electricity generation.
Q. Are we truly able to produce 43,000 MW
of hydroelectricity? Then why only 1000MW
is being produced? Where is the drag?
I don’t agree that the production capacity is either
43,000 MW or 83,000 MW, because when it comes
to determining what the capacity is, we must fi rst
analyze the market where we are to supply the
electricity.
If we were to supply the market inside Nepal only
then even less than 43000 MW is enough. But if
we consider the bigger market such as India and
Bangladesh then the capacity must be high. During
the wet seasons, our supply increases and demand
in India increases and so does the price. So, looking
at the Indian market we must produce more during
wet seasons.
If we are to consider larger market along with
exports, then even capacity of 1 lakh MW is not
enough but if we are to focus on internal market
only then this capacity must be reduced in order to
bring fi rm power by reducing the discharge. Hence,
our capacity actually depends on how we explore
the market.
Q. Why is the development of hydropower
plants slow? Which of the following do you
think are the main reasons?
•
•
•
•
Financially weak
More dependence on foreign investment
Less utilization of Nepali engineers
Slow execution of policies and slow approval
from authorities
The main reason behind the slow development of
hydropower plants is political instability. There is a
lack of proper leadership vision within the people
working in the NEA and the Ministry
for the long-term processes in terms
of policies, strategic movements
and plans.
The next reason is the way we
are managing our fund and local
resources. We are not increasing
them or utilizing them at their best. We have seen
that even local funding can bring high capacity
hydropower plants such as Tamakoshi and Chilime.
Though this increased many projects even from the
private sectors, there is a lack of leadership vision on
the management of resources and the fund we are
provided with and with what we have.
Q. What other source of energy besides
hydropower can Nepal really benefi t from?
We are planning to produce 4200 MW from solar
power plants. Bio mass from sugarcane has also been
planned. We could also produce energy from oil, but
since it is very costly, our focus is on hydropower
right now.