NEA under pressure to operate Bahrabise substation as Madhya Bhotekoshi Hydropower targets to operate in two months

Kathmandu; The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) is under pressure to complete a 220 kV substation, which is under construction at Bahrabise in Sindhupalchok district with Madhya Bhotekoshi Jalavidyut Company (MBJC) reaching the final stage of its construction.

Chilime Hydroelectricity Company has been constructing the 102 MW MBJC. According to the company, the project is likely to produce electricity in the next two months. With the development, the NEA authority has come under pressure to immediately complete the construction of the substation, without which the electricity produced from the newly constructed project is likely to go to waste.

As per the plan, the electricity from the MBJC will be connected to Bahrabise substation through 220 kV transmission line. The project has already erected towers, while it is stretching the transmission line from the power plant to Bahrabise substation.

The construction of the substation has been delayed mainly due to the poor performance of the joint venture of the Chinese companies Guangxi Transmission and Substation Construction and Shenzhen Clou Electronics, which got the contract for the construction of the Bahrabise substation.

The NEA has been warning the Chinese companies that the authority will make them pay compensation if the electricity produced by the MBJC goes to waste due to the delay in construction of the substation.

In this regard, a high-level team of the NEA including Managing Director Kulman Ghising, Deputy Managing Director of Broadcasting Directorate Dilghayu Kumar Shrestha and Deputy Managing Director of Project Management Directorate Tara Prasad Pradhan visited the substation construction site on Saturday. The team discussed with the project management and related professionals about the problems encountered in the construction, the condition of equipment supply and the construction completion schedule, among others.

Giving instructions to speed up the construction by increasing the number of workers, Ghising said he would visit the substation site weekly to get information about the construction progress.

"The equipment for the substation including the power transformer has arrived at the construction site; there is no reason to delay the construction. We are also ready to facilitate the construction from our side," he said.

The contractors have already brought the power transformers and other equipment for the substation. Similarly, the control room building is under construction near the site of the transformer. The substation will have 220/132 kV, 160 MVA and 132/11 kV, 5 MVA power transformers. Another 400 kV substation is also under construction in Bahrabise.

The authority has temporarily made an alternative arrangement to evacuate electricity to be produced by the hydropower project. However, it will still need construction of twelve substations. The 132 kV single circuit transmission line built by Shivashree Hydropower, the promoter company of the 22 MW Upper Chaku 'A' Hydropower Project, is going to be doubled. The stretching of the transmission line, which Shivashree Hydropower is supposed to build connecting Lamosanghu substation to Bahrabise, has not even started.

The company will have to lay seven kilometers of wires out of about 10 kilometers of the transmission lines, while a four-circuit (multi-circuit) transmission line of about three kilometers will have to be built from near Bahrabise Bazaar to the substation. However, the company has not yet started the work. The high-level team of the authority has requested the company to start the construction work immediately. The NEA is working on road expansion at Lamosanghu substation.

The construction of Tamakoshi-Kathmandu transmission line and substation has been started to flow the electricity of the hydroelectric project of Tamakoshi and Sunkoshi rivers and their tributaries to the national transmission system. Transmission lines and substations are being constructed with concessional loans from the Asian Development Bank.

Under the Tamakoshi-Kathmandu 220/400 kV transmission line project, a 44 km transmission line is under construction from New Khimti substation at Ramechhap to Bahrabise. Similarly, a 46 km 400 kV double circuit from Bahrabise to Lapsiphedi in Kathmandu and 14 km 132 kV transmission line from Lapsiphedi to Changu Narayan in Bhaktapur are also under construction. The Construction of 400/220 and 132/11 kV substations at Lapsiphedi has been affected due to obstruction by local residents.