TAPLEJUNG, Aug 21: About 35 megawatt of hydroelectricity from eastern Nepal is being connected to the national transmission line soon. This includes 9.9 megawatt from the Iwa Khola and 25 megawatt from the Kaveli B-1 hydropower projects.
The Iwa Khola project has completed all works, according to Tika Mishra, information officer of Rairang Hydropower Company Limited, the developer of the project.
Mishra said that work was underway at Amarpur sub-station in Panchthar district, where electricity from both Iwa Khola and Kaveli B-1 projects will be connected.
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Testing of the powerhouse, turbine and other machinery for Iwa Khola project has already been successfully completed, Mishra added. According to him, it should not take more than a week to connect electricity to the national grid.
However, Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has said electricity produced from both the projects needed to be connected at the same time, which might happen only in the second week of September.
The testing of powerhouse, turbine, and machine of the Kaveli B-1 hydropower plant has also been completed already. However, time will take to repair the generator which has been facing problem.
The powerhouse of the project is built in Dahal village, Triveni of Tharpu and the source of the project is in Taplejung Rural Municipality-4 and Panchthar Yangbarak-4.
The total budget of the Iwa Khola project is Rs 1.6 billion. Sixty-five percent of the investment comes from five private banks.
According to the developer company, power purchase agreement with the NEA was done in 2013, which was approved by the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation in 2014.
The construction of Kaveli B-1 was started in 2015. This total project cost has been Rs 5 billion, which was covered by institutional shareholders (70%), citizens of the affected region (10%), and public shareholders (20%). The institutional shareholders include Nabil Bank, Global IME Bank, Laxmi Bank, Everest Bank, and Hydroelectricity Investment and Development Company Ltd.
