Jhumsakhola MHP connected to national grid

Jhumsakhola III micro hydropower project, located at Mathagadhi Rural Municipality, Palpa district has been connected to the national grid. The MHP was built in 17 years ago. The MHP has a capacity of 68 KW of electricity generation.

In the past, as the consumers who could not get the electricity from the national grid, MHPs were constructed for electricity generation and consumed in the local households and small and micro business entrepreneurship. But in a number of places, they are stuck as a result of reaching the grid.

Before going for connection, Jhumsakhola Micro Hydroelectricity Cooperative Society was converted into limited company.

Inaugurating the electricity connection of Jhumsakhola to the national grid, the Member of the House of Representatives, Narayan Acharya emphasized that in the future, the government should include it in the policy level and initiate policy making to connect micro hydropower plants to the national grid.

The eelectricity generated by Jhumsakhola MHP to be connected to the national grid was possible with the support of Alternative Energy Promotion Center, National Micro and Small Hydropower Consumer Society, Nepal Energy Institute and Mathagadhi Rural Municipality.

Chairman of Mathagadhi Rural Municipality Yam Bahadur Chidi informed that with aims to increase the income of cooperatives and consumer societies, 5 million from Alternative Energy Promotion Center, 1 million from National Small and Small Hydropower Consumer Society, 1.2 million from the Nepal Energy Foundation, 2.2 million from shares to consumers and 3.3 million from the rural municipality have invested for the synchronization of the MHP to connect to the national grid.

Although JhumsaMHP III MHP, which is connected to the national transmission line, has a capacity of 68 kilowatts, only 30/35 kilowatts are being used by local consumers.

By selling the surplus energy to the Nepal Electricity Authority, it is estimated that an addition of up to 2 lakh rupees per month as income will be added.

NawarajDhakal, executive director of the Alternative Energy Promotion Center says that there is an urgent need for policy making on connect the surplus electricity used by consumers to the national grid.

“Presently, consumers need to purchase materials such as panel boards, access wires, poles, net meters, transformers,” he said.

Consumers in Mathagadi-5 Hattilung used to use 25 to 30 KW electricity. He said that they will earn benefits when the remaining electricity is connected to the national transmission line according to their capacity.

Bir Bahadur Barghare, chairman of the cooperative, said that electricity generated by the plant has been accessed to more than 500 households. Hence, the power surplus will be sent to the national grid.

“In the present context, it is not easy for consumers to connect electricity to the national grid,” Dilli Ghimire of Nepal Energy Foundation said. “Because the federal government has not been able to formulate a suitable policy yet.”

The study has shown that 17 micro hydropower projects in Lumbini Province can be connected to the national grid. They can be connected to the national grid.

In the recent days, it is loudly claimed that 98% of the Nepalese households have access to the electricity, the power supply is highly intermittent with frequent power cuts.

Experts say that there are two options for tackling this problem either a) connect new generation capacity to the grid or b) interconnect the existing Micro Hydro Power Plants (MHPs) to form a larger local grid or connect directly to the national grid.

MHPs were first introduced in Nepal in the 1962 AD and since then they have been providing access to energy in the rural off-grid houses in Nepal. Until 2018, more than 3000 MHPs with a generation capacity of 35 MW have been developed in Nepal. It cost about NPR 17-25 per kWh for Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA)’s grid to deliver electricity in the rural hilly areas (depending on the distance) whereas it cost about NPR 9-15 per Kwh via a 50-100 kW MHP that is interconnected to the grid. Therefore, it is more economically feasible for Nepal to interconnect the existing MHPs to the grid to solve its energy crisis.

The first MHP, called Syaurebhumi was interconnected to the grid on 11th January 2018. This MHP has a capacity of 23kW and is located in the Sikre village of Nuwakot district. It delivers a total of 178,245 units of electricity annually. After this project, two more MHPs were connected to the national grid namely, LeguwaKhola MHP (40kW capacity) in Dhankutta district and Chimal MHP (capacity 90kW) in Taplejung district.