This development is likely to become a reality as the country’s most significant internet service providers reach a consensus.

The Internet Service Providers’ Association of Nepal (ISPAN) stated that the fellow companies would hike the monthly subscription prices by NPR 150 in rural areas while urban areas will be subjected to a hike of NPR 300.

However, the prices will be implemented only if the government approves the hike.

Nepal Telecommunication Authority, the country’s telecom regulator, will play a crucial role as it is ratification is required for the implementation of the hike. The national authority is expected to take a call on this.

ISPAN stated that it was compelled to jack up the prices as Nepal Electricity Authority and Nepal Telecom increased their overheads from internet companies.

Sudhir Parajuli, ISPAN President, stated that their decision to hike prices would affect 90 percent of the internet users in Nepal.

The internet service providers are already on the receiving end as most feel the prices they pay for the tendered substandard services is unjustified.

Stay Tuned to NepaliSansar for Latest Nepal Technology News Updates!

More News:

• China Readies Millions of Vaccine Doses for Nepal
• ICC WC League 2: Nepal to Take on The USA Today! Watch Live!
• Now Transfer Money Seamlessly with ‘Namaste Pay’
• WC League 2: Nepal Suffers Big Defeat Against Oman!

The post Internet Connectivity Set to Become Costly in Nepal appeared first on Nepali Sansar.

The MoU has been signed by Nepal Electricity Authority, Tamakoshi Hydropower Company, and Employees Provident Fund (EPF) on Sunday. The Minister for Energy, Water Resources, and Irrigation Pampha Bhusal was also present during the signing ceremony.

The project will take off on an investment footing of NPR 16.19 billion. The EPF will contribute 70 percent of that amount by doling out a loan of NPR 11.33 billion. The remainder will be sourced from the People’s Hydropower Program, which would raise the fund by releasing stocks to the public.

This project is the fifth in series in the 456 MW Upper Tamakoshi Cascade Project. Additionally, the feasibility of the hydropower is high as the project location requires no structural constructions such as dams and descenders.

Already, a gate has been installed, and it shall redirect the water from the Upper Tamakoshi powerhouse to the project tunnel. The tunnel will be 8 km long.

The project has already been cleared for electricity generation in 2017 and has been approved by the environmental impact assessment (EIA). The pre-construction works for the new project have begun, and the works have been accelerated to complete the hydropower plant by 2028.

Stay Tuned to NepaliSansar for Latest Nepal Govt News Updates!

More News:

• Football Coach Almutairi Resigns, Blames ANFA Senior VP Nembang!
• Tokyo Olympics: Sonia, Kalpana Fails to Qualify for Next Round!
• Nepal Grade 12 Examination Routine 2021 Announced!
• Style Icon Nepal 2021 Announced! Apply Now!
• Nepal’s COVID-19 tally spike up as 1855 new infections crop up

The post Memorandum of Understanding signed on Tamakoshi hydropower investment appeared first on Nepali Sansar.

The project, which is under construction, was scheduled to dole out 76 MW of electricity from the first unit on Monday. The other units will become operational after the first unit goes live.

Managing Director of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) Hitendra Dev Shakya and PM’s Development Expert Gajendra Thapaliya surveyed the construction of the power plant on Sunday and approved the power generation plan for Monday.

The officials oversaw the equipment test at the power plant and at the Khimti substation. The substation is also under construction in Ramechap. “We have brought the project, which has been facing various problems, to the point of generating electricity through continuous efforts. All the tests have reached the final stage. We will start power generation from the first unit by switching on Monday morning without any technical problems,” said Hitendra Dev Shakya.

All the other tests pertaining to the power plant’s integrity have been completed successful. The electricity which will be generated from this plant will be transferred to the national grid via Gongar-Khimti-Dhalkebar 220 kV transmission line. The transmission line construction is complete, and the same is being tested.

“As it will take a few days to test the substation, alternative arrangements will be made to connect the project’s electricity to the New Khimti substation and connect it directly to the Dhalkebar substation,” Shakya said. “We have made the necessary arrangements for this.”

Stay Tuned to NepaliSansar for Latest Nepal News Updates!

More News:

• Nepal Airlines becomes Nepal’s official air carrier for letters and parcels
• Nepal Records 2,636 New COVID-19 Cases while 4,348 infected People Recover
• Himalayan Reinsurance Company’s Licensing ‘Deal’ May Taint Nepal Government
• Nepal-India Border Conflict Intensifies as ‘849 Border Pillars Go Missing’ in Province 2!
• Online Platform Daraz to Promote Nepal at Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics!
• Nepal to Receive NPR 17.78 Bn Concessional Loan from World Bank!

The post Tamakoshi Hydropower plant in the final stage of testing appeared first on Nepali Sansar.

Apart from causing loss of human life, the floods have caused severe damage to infrastructure and property.

According to the Independent Power Producers’ Association, Nepal (IPPAN), the monsoon-induced hazards have wrecked many hydropower projects, causing around NPR 10 billion loss.

The financial loss was attributed to the damage caused to the powerhouses, dams, transmission line poles, and connecting roads.

The Super Madi Hydropower Project is the most affected infrastructure, informed IPPAN President Krishna Prasad Acharya.

The IPPAN has urged the Nepali Government to draft a high-level mechanism, comprising officials from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Finance, and Energy, to calculate actual damages to the hydropower projects.

The Association has also requested Nepal Electricity Authority to act swiftly to safeguard its substations and prevent possible disruption in electric supply.

Stay Tuned to NepaliSansar for Latest Nepal Monsoon News!

More News:

• Nepal Collects 94.6% of Revenue Target for Current FY with 2 Months Left!
• Nepal tourism may take a couple of years to rebound: Govt
• Commerce Dept. Collects NPR 22.88Mn in Fines from Deceitful Firms!
• Over 100 Nursing Colleges Without Own Hospitals To be Banned!
• World Bank extends monetary support to Nepal’s pandemic fight
• 15 Dead as Floods Ravage Nepal
• Melamchi Flood Wreaks Havoc in Nepal

The post Monsoon Floods Wreck Hydropower Projects, Inflict NPR 10 Bn Loss! appeared first on Nepali Sansar.

The authority projected a profit increase of 149 percent from FY 2017-18, where it recorded a profit of NPR 2.9 billion.

Nepal Minister for Energy, Water Resource and Irrigation Barsha Man Pun organized a press meet on August 13, 2019 to speak about progress in the electricity sector and its future plans.

Speaking about power leakage, Minister Pun said that it has been reduced to 15.32 percent in FY 2018-19 from 20.45 percent in FY 2017-18.

NEA Managing Director Kulman Ghising said that distribution contributes to 11 percent of leakage while technical leakage contributes to 4 percent.

“We have reached South Asian standard in controlling distribution leakage. Now, we need to focus on technical leakage,” said Ghising.

Besides, the authority has stepped up action against leakages by running campaigns to control power theft, control leakage, improve the situation of distribution lines and sub-lines and tighten payment of due bills.

Minister Pun also updated the press, stating that the number of consumers connected to the national grid have increased by 10 percent in FY 2018-19.

He also revealed that a new electricity act is being formed in line with Nepal’s federal structure after conducting talks with the respective stakeholders.

Pun said that the government is also targeting to completely eliminate the usage of cooking gas, diesel and petrol and replace them with electricity.

“We are about to finalize the criteria for establishing vehicle charging stations to encourage electric vehicles,” said Pun.

The Energy Minister added that the government is also thinking of creating a policy to promote electric cooking in every household.

However, the NEA has still incurred a loss of NPR 15.22 billion. On a positive note, the authority has been reducing its cumulative loss over the last three years, which was NPR 25.59 billion in FY 2017-18, NPR 28.17 billion in 2016-17 and NPR 34.61 billion in 2015-16.

Moreover, NEA which was making an annual loss of NPR 8.89 billion in FY 2015-16 is making continuous profits after Ghising was made its Managing Director.

In another interesting update, Minister Pun said that preparations to make Kathmandu wireless were underway.

“We have already selected the contactor and the initial preparation has already started,” said Pun.

It’s time Nepal seriously considered switching to electricity for its commercial and household purposes, especially with the burden that the swelling LPG imports brings on Nepal’s already widening trade deficit.

The post FY 2018-19: NEA Projects 149 Pc Increase in Net Profit appeared first on Nepali Sansar.

After construction started in 2000, the first of the project’s two turbines completed a 72-hour trial operation on Monday after injecting 30 megawatts of power into the Nepali grid on May 16, 2019.

The successful trial run showed that the turbine performed well under commercial operation conditions.

Nepal’s geographical environment provides favorable hydropower conditions for the country.

In recent years, some Chinese hydropower development companies have undertaken projects of various scales in Nepal, playing a positive role in easing the country’s power shortage and helping tap the potential of hydropower development.

Nepal’s Largest Hydropower Plant

The station, constructed by China Gezhouba Group, is equipped with two vertical shaft hydro-generator sets, with 30 megawatts for each, and is located in Rasuwa, a suburban community about 95 kilometers from Kathmandu. It is the largest hydropower plant in Nepal that went into operation in 2019.

Officials from the Nepal Electricity Authority say that the project will help relieve the electricity pressure in Kathmandu during peak demand, and greatly reduce the electricity shortage of valley residents.

The Nepal Electricity Authority built the project with a concessional loan of USD 114.7 million from the Export-Import Bank of China. The interest rate on the loan is 1.75 percent, and the repayment period is 20 years starting from the date of commercial operation, according to a report by Nepali newspaper Money.

“In terms of distribution, electricity from the Trishuli corridor has made our system more reliable and robust,” said Kulman Ghising, managing director of the Nepal Electricity Authority.

“Also, we can now save water in the Kulekhani reservoir and use it to avert intermittent supply issues in other regions. The load centre is near Kathmandu, and the Upper Trishuli plant will produce around 45 megawatts, even during the winter. This will help us to maintain the demand-supply equilibrium in Kathmandu,” he was quoted as saying by Money.

8 percent of Nepal’s power demand

Ghising believes that if the plant runs smoothly, it will be able to meet 8 percent of the country’s power demand and help to reduce its dependence on India for energy, especially during the winter, local media said.

The electricity generated by the plant will mainly serve people in Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, to further ease electricity shortages in the region, said Wang Ziyang, the project manager from China Gezhouba Group.

A Collaborative Effort

The project was originally due for completion in 2014. But a serious earthquake in 2015 damaged the dam road and brought a series of obstacles for Chinese construction workers, including mudslides, shortages of supplies and poor road traffic. The recovery work was not started until 2017.

At the peak of the construction, around 600 Nepalese and more than 200 Chinese workers worked on the site together, many of whom became close friends during that time.

Krishna Shrestha is a mechanic who worked on the project for seven years. In order to communicate better with his Chinese colleagues and further improve his skills, Krishna bought himself textbooks and audio-visual materials to learn Chinese and practiced every day during his commute, according to China Radio International.

The second generator set of the Upper Trishuli 3A Hydropower Station will be connected to the grid at the end of June this year.

Source: Global Times

The post Major Breakthrough in Nepal’s Largest Hydropower Project appeared first on Nepali Sansar.

The Himalayan nation has reportedly imported 653MW electricity from India, touching the highest-ever quantity imported till date since it ended power cuts three years ago.

Winter peak load and declining production from run-of-river schemes due to low river water volume in rivers contributed to the rise in import.

Eventually, the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) had to import additional power from India after the total local power demand reached 1,243MW, last week.

“The amount we import depends on the total demand, so it keeps going up or down,” says Suresh Bhattarai of NEA. 

But unexpectedly, 58 percent of electricity demand on January 12, 2018 was met by import from India.

According to NEA Managing Director Kulman Ghising, the country needed 500 MW electricity more to cater to local needs this winter, but the actual import went 153MW beyond his estimate.

It is noteworthy here that Nepal had spent Rs 20 billion on electricity imports from India, on top of the Rs 90 billion worth petroleum imports.

“If we compare the cost of importing 500MW electricity to the loss that Nepal’s industries would incur without that electricity, then the loss is much higher. It will take many years for us to construct 500MW hydropower plants. But the power is immediately available for import, which is economically more beneficial for us,” adds Ghising.

As per the reports, many local areas of the country have been facing power shortage since the mid of December 2018. But NEA did not declare resumption of load shedding.

“The distribution systems and transmission lines are overloaded, and that has led to transformers exploding and feeders catching fire. These incidents have led to electricity service being interrupted, it cannot be called load-shedding,” explains Bhattarai.

On the other side, the government is working on ways to address the gaps in the domestic power sector through a special committee.

Hope the ongoing efforts would end the public and industry power concerns.

Also Read: Nepal, India Consider Power Banking in Energy Meet

The post Intense Power Shortage Pushes Nepal for Record Imports appeared first on Nepali Sansar.

The two countries agreed to the ‘Nepal-India energy banking deal’ at the 13^th meeting of the Power Exchange Committee (PEC) held in New Delhi, India on December 26, 2018.

This long-awaited ‘power or energy banking’ deal aims to help the two nations in effective and uninterrupted utilization of power.

The energy banking mechanism fulfils Nepal’s long-standing wish to export its surplus power to India, especially during the monsoon season, and also leverage the benefit of importing similar amount of power in exchange whenever required.

According to Kulman Ghising, Managing Director of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) and Nepal’s delegation lead at the PEC meeting, the new agreement will also boost Indo-Nepal bilateral energy trade.

As part of the meeting, the two sides agreed on draft guidelines pertaining to the agreement needed to implement methodology and structure of energy banking.

The draft of the new deal is expected to be approved at the energy secretary-level joint steering committee meeting to be held in January 2019.

“The agreement has been forged on the guideline prepared for energy banking and will be implemented following approval from the secretary-level joint steering committee meeting,” adds Ghising.

Ghising terms the deal as a ‘milestone’ achievement in the history of Nepal hydropower sector.

According to NEA Spokesperson Prabal Adhikari, Nepal also made a proposal for an ‘energy book’ for the first 5-7 years with India and India agreed to the same.

“Nepal will book for energy in the first five to seven years as it will take almost four years to construct the transmission line. The model of the investment mechanism will be finalised by the joint steering committee meeting,” said Adhikari.

Over the years till date, NEA has been purchasing power on a need-to-need basis from Indian states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Uttarakhand under the ‘purchase-and-pay’ mechanism.

Hope the Himalayan nation’s power sector will progress to the next level under the new ‘milestone’ agreement.

The post ‘Energy Banking Deal’ with India, A New Milestone for Nepal Hydropower appeared first on Nepali Sansar.

The meeting held recently includes discussions on tariffs pertaining to electricity imports from India, power banking and modality of cross-border power transmission line, among others between the two countries.

While Nepal is currently purchasing 400 megawatt of electricity from India every day and more in the dry season, India had proposed 20 percent rise in tariff rate of power supplied to Nepal, which Nepal disagreed.

The meeting is expected to witness discussions on the new Butwal-Gorakhpur International Transmission Line.

Power banking is going to be one key aspect during the meeting, in case of which, Nepal proposes to sell its excess electricity during the monsoon season to India and will buy in exchange from India during the dry season.

Power banking refers to the exchange of power as cash. Under this mechanism, one country exports electricity to the other when it has a surplus and imports back the same amount in case of its deficit.

Outcomes of the meeting will further be discussed at the energy secretary-level meet to be held next month in Pokhara, Nepal.

This meeting is coming after an energy secretary-level joint steering committee in April 2018, which authorized Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) and the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) to make necessary suggestions to the committee on implementation and funding modalities.

The post Nepal, India Consider Power Banking in Energy Meet appeared first on Nepali Sansar.

The report entitled ‘Local Shares: An In-depth Examination of the Opportunities and Risks for Local Communities Seeking to Invest in Nepal’s Hydropower Projects’ analyzed the country’s innovative benefit sharing policy that allows communities’ investment in local hydropower projects in the form of ‘local shares’.

Currently, the Government of Nepal mandates hydropower developers to give 10 percent of their shares to communities affected by the project.

Considering the government’s goal of generating 10,000 MW hydropower in the next 10 years, around USD 439 million can be raised from project-affected communities as ‘equity’, says IFC.

Nepal’s local shares model is unique. It recognizes the importance of communities in private sector hydropower investment, says Wendy Werner, IFC Country Manager for Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal.

“For example, in the last three years, over USD 10 million was raised through local shares by 13 small-to-medium hydropower companies. The investment model offers great potential to create local ownership and increase public support for hydropower projects,” adds IFC, a World Bank Group member.

However, IFC reports lack of awareness about the sharing market mechanism and safety measures that can reduce investor risk among locals, majorly women and socially, economically & culturally disadvantaged communities of the country.

The report found that locals borrow at high interest rates or sell primary assets in order to invest in local shares, ending up in unrealistic expectations and risk of loss.

To address such gaps, IFC recommends community-level education and enhanced regulations that can maximize investment opportunities and also protect them from undue risk.

The study also recommends simplification of financial information making it understandable event to non-subject matter experts, creation of low-risk mechanisms for vulnerable households, digitizing the share allocation process and information online for more transparency and accountability in the process.

“IFC aims to ensure the private sector contributes to sustainable power development and that this investment opportunity is within reach of every citizen, balancing the potential returns with the project risks,” adds Werner.

“The comprehensive consolidation of this report is very timely and will hopefully enable informed discussions at the policy level to improve and strengthen the local shares mechanism as a viable model of equity participation involving local people,” says Kulman Ghising, Managing Director of Nepal Electricity Authority.

Also Read:

• Nepal 2017 Highlights: Hydropower Potential Grows Three-fold with 16 New Projects
• Himalayan Hydro Expo 2018: Investors Urged to Tap Nepal’s Hydropower Potential
• Nepal For Clean Energy Solutions, Bets Big on Hydropower

The post IFC Mulls Safe Investment Opportunities for Nepali Citizens appeared first on Nepali Sansar.