ADB lends $ 150m for hydropower project
KATHMANDU, FEB 26:
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is lending $150 million to develop 140-megawatt Tanahun hydropower project.
The Manila based lender issuing a statement on Sunday, said it will develop the hydropower project to reduce Nepal’s energy crisis. “The country has energy crisis, and this is affecting economic prospects badly,” said Yongping Zhai, director at Energy Division of ADB South Asia Department.
Electricity demand in the country is growing at 10 per cent a year, but lack of investment means supplies are not keeping up, it said. Blackouts of up to 18 hours a day in the dry season are common, even in the capital Kathmandu, the bank said, adding that the problem is forcing businesses and households to use expensive and polluting diesel generators. Nepal’s mountain ranges and many swiftly flowing rivers endow it with huge hydropower resources.
However, the country’s total installed power generation capacity is just 700 megawatts – largely from hydropower. This represents only 1.5 per cent of Nepal’s hydropower potential, it said. The 140-megawatt hydropower plant, will be located around 150 kilometres west of Kathmandu on the Seti river in Tanahu district, will generate electricity year round.
To ensure steady supply even during the dry winter months of November through April, the plant will be fed from a 7.26 square kilometre reservoir, making it the country’s first major hydropower plant with water storage capacity and a sediment flushing system.
Around 85 per cent of Nepal’s existing plants use the run of the river to generate power, which makes for lower output during the dry season. None have the means to cope with country’s sediment-heavy rivers.
In addition to building the hydropower plant and a transmission system, the project will also provide at least 17,636 homes in the area of the hydropower plant with direct connections to the national power grid.
Only around one-third of households are connected to the electricity distribution grid, with connection rates much lower in rural areas, it said.
The entire project will cost around $500 million and will be co-funded by ADB and the Japan International Cooperation Agency lending, the European Investment Bank, and the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development.
The hydropower plant’s construction will follow best international practice.
ADB will ensure that the appropriate social and environmental rules, procedures and guidelines are adhered to. The project company, Tanahu Hydropower Ltd, will invest in health and education programmes as well as income and livelihood skills training for the local communities.
ADB and its partners have already carried out climate change impact modeling work on the project, and will do more assessments prior to its construction.
Source: THT
