MICRO HYDRO-POWER TECHNICAL PROBLEM IN NEPAL
Alternative Energy Promotion Center Nepal (AEPC) has increased ranges from 5 Kw to 10 Kw upto 100 Kw. There are more then 2500 Micro Hydro power is installed by AEPC under Renewable Energy for Rural Livelihood (RERL) program.
There are other non government organization working on Micro hydro power as well local private micro hydropower project is installed.
There are lots of things now we should have to focus on Micro Hydropower development . Nepal is among number one country in South Asia in Micro Hydropower, though the development is only under the project accomplishment. With in this last five decades we are using the same technology what we had use earlier and till know very few of the private company is really working on technical development of Micro Hydro power.
The major technical problem is overall efficiency of project, which hardly comes from 55 % to 65 % only, the question may arises where is the other remaining efficiency ? The second problem which saw during site visit is Electrical standard .
Fig: fault on 11 KV HT line
Its very serious question , though it was clearly mentioning on report, necessary standard of electrical instruments , I am not sure whether of company negligence or area center irresponsibility electrical system component mostly MCB is of low quality.
Fig: Fault of pin insulator on 11 KV HT line.
The output power of microhydropower (MHP) is rapidly fallen. I have seen plenty of Micro hydropower out put power has fallen among which some of them is due to decrease in electro- mechanical performance and decrease in water.
The other problem is the demand of rural area power is increasing day by day which ultimately made load shedding in many of the Micro hydro power site. How can you may forced to use only 200 watt per house of power for rural part of Nepal . Being Nepali citizenship they have equal right to use as much power they want but that not the case for rural Nepal . Though may be some of you scold me its microhydropower how can they use as much as power they want ? Its not possible technically but my dear friend there is possibility if we seriously make or increase the efficiency of MHP then we can easily fulfill there demand if prior design and estimation should have been take while surveying and doing load study .
The final and least is the distribution line of NEA has reached in many of the MHP site. What about that investment on MHP. While getting connection to NEA line there is no restriction of consumption of power for user which ultimately decrease the user of MHP which may be serious risk investment. Is there any solutions of it How can we save the MHP site, there is an easy answer yes there is one solution and that is to sell power to NEA. Till know there is not any MHP site successfully connected to grid but there is a good news is that PPA of 23 Kw Saury Bhumi Micro Hydropower had been done and lets hope for its success. I will update you with the grid synchronization on my next blog thank you .
