Nepal harnessing the power of the Himalayas 02 Apr 2020

Each year the Nepal Tunnelling Association updates the record of hydro projects in operation, under construction and planned for the future. The current report indicates that there are more than 100 hydro power plants in operation in Nepal with an installed capacity of 1,130MW at present.

Harnessing the power of the Himalayas in Nepal

In addition there are another 123 hydropower projects currently in construction to add a generating capacity of 3,869MW in the near future. Of those, 42 projects involve tunnels and underground works to house generators with a total capacity of 3,265MW (Table 1).

For the future, there are 36 hydro projects planned with a potential to operate 22,618MW installations (Table 2).

Many of the current hydropower projects are being constructed by Chinese contractors including Sino Hydro, Jhe Jhiyang, Ghejuba and China Overseas Engineering. Others are being developed by local Nepal construction companies, and contractors from India are also working on projects in Nepal including Drillco, Jaya Prakash and Patel Engineering. Hazma of Japan and Daelim of South Korea are also working on current projects in Nepal.

Funding for the projects is sourced principally via loans from The World Bank, the Investment Bank of Asia, the European Investment Bank and international investment banks of different nations of the world, as well as local Nepalese banks.

There are current and longer-term issues being addressed by the hydropower development industry in Nepal. Most immediately, construction on current projects by Chinese contractors were closed down for managers and workers to return to China for the Chinese New Year holidays in February 2020 and these now remain closed down due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and suspension of international travel both in China and in Nepal.

For the longer term, Nepal is feeling the impact of global climate change. Glaciers and snowcaps are receding and melting at a fast rate and here in the Himalayas we are experiencing longer dry winter seasons and exceptionally heavy flash flooding rainfall in the wet seasons. These have created a situation where hydro plants can run at only 30-35% as there is insufficient water in the rivers to run them at full capacity. There is a shortfall of about 500MW of electricity generation in Nepal in the dry winter months when demand for electricity is highest.

Nepal is also not able to use the amount of power it can generate and has to export a large percentage of surplus in the wet seasons to neighbouring India and China. A hydro capacity of 83GW has been identified for additional development in Nepal with about 43GW of this considered technically viable.

Dam construction and underground works for hydropower installations will remain the principal demand for civil infrastructure in Nepal for decades to come. In addition to that the Government is beginning to invest also in road and rail infrastructure across the country and in the main cities and these too will require extensive underground excavation projects.