National 6 (Spotlight Weekly)

Exemplary Achivement

Chilime Hydro Power Project, Nepal's first indigenously developed 20 MW power plant, begins productions

By A CORRESSPONDENT

Nepalese engineers and technicians have proved that they have the capability to build power plants on their own. Will their enthusiasm continue, however, remains to be seen. After nearly seven years, Chilime hydropower plant has successfully produced the electricity, which has been delivered to the national grid. The 20 MW project, which lies 150 kilometers north of capital, is the first of its kind built wholly by Nepalese engineers.

NEA : Indigenous capability

At a time when the cost of country's other power plants have gone up, Chillime is one of the cheapest projects ever built in Nepal with the total cost of Rs.2.32 billion and per kilowatt cost of US$ 1450. the project construction had started in 1995. The power supplied by the Chilime will increase Nepal's energy capacity.

Chilime will produce 130.7 million unit of electricity annually and the per unit cost of the electricity will be Rs.2.19. Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) will pay Rs.3.00 per unit. The price will increase 8 percent annually for 12 years. With the investment by Nepalese, NEA does not have to pay in dollar.

The per kilowatt cost of Marsyangdi Power project is US$ 3478 and Kali Gandkai is about US$ 2800 per kilowatt. The power of Chilime is connected to the central grid through 66 kv transmission line. The power project will start to generate in its full capacity from next week.

Nepalese have learnt the technique and improved their technical capability during the construction of Chilime. For NEA, it took about two decade to prepare the capable technical manpower. NEA's engineers have built this institutional capability working through various stages.

Following the announcement of cease-fire, NEA has already restored most of the power infrastructures damaged during the Maoist insurgency. The NEA has done it in record time proving that it has manpower and technical capability to restore and reconstruct the infrastructures.

"Nepalese capability has to be utilized for the construction of other big projects in the days ahead. Nepalese now should aim to construct another 60 MW project using local resources," said a former senior official of NEA.

Till a decade ago, it was beyond imagination for Nepalese engineers to design and build the indigenous project on their own. Most of Nepal's power plant was built with the support from foreigners. Although Nepalese engineers have supported the foreign companies on their quest to build the power this is their first test to do on their own.

At a time when Nepal's power system is getting expensive, NEA can utilize its own manpower and resources to build other big projects. Nepal's first hydro power plant was built in Pharping with the support from the British. With technical and financial support form Inida, Nepal's another 20 MW power project was built in Trishuli.

From Pharping to Kulekhani and Kali Gandaki A in the public sector and Bhote Kosi to Khimti in private sector, a huge pool of Nepalese technical manpower was involved. The experiences and technical expertise they gained in these projects have been instrumental in the successful commissioning of the Chilime project.

As the country requires many other power projects, the experienced and capacity gained by the Nepalese engineers should be used to construct other major projects. This time they completed 20MW and there is no reason why they cannot go for another 60 MW or bigger projects.

Despite long dilly-dallying and disturbance in the phase of construction, Chilime is finally over as the first major indigenous project with low cost. How NEA will continue its efforts to encourage its own strong pool of technical capability remains to be seen.