User:Kpnl123/sandbox

Nepal is federal democratic republic country that extends from latitude 26°22'N to 30°27'N and from longitude 80°04'E to 88°12'E. It is mountainous landlocked country that is situated geographically between two great nations, India and China. Nepal institutes over 6000 rivers comprising rivulets and tributaries having 45,000 kilometers length. Variable topographic altitude ranging from 60 to 8848 meters above sea level within a lateral extension of 145-248 km, has delivered steep topographic gradient owing to viability of hydropower development. Nepal is rich in renewable water resources constituting the potential of producing 83,000 MW of electricity, of which, around 43,000MW, is economically viable. Despite enormous hydroelectric potential, it is until recently Nepal has started recognizing and utilizing its hydroelectric power. The absence of fossil fuel reserve and the presence of abundant water resources propelled Nepal to solely be responsible for hydroelectricity development to fulfil its increasing energy requirement. However, the dominance of run-of-the-river hydropower plants has led to acute capacity shortages especially during the dry season, when demand rises sharply but water flow decreases, adversely affecting power generation. Though the installed generation capacity of Nepal has grown steadily, peak demand has also raised at higher rate and as per the data for 2016, energy import from India doubled for an average annual growth rate of 20.4%, compared with a 0.3% annual increase in NEA generation. Owing to this situation, in the year 2016, Kulman Ghising, Managing Director of NEA, took steps to manage the increased outputs from domestic generation, reduced system losses and increased cross border transmission capacity for electricity imports from India, and gradually decreased the load shedding hours. Hence, the country that once faced sixteen hours of load shedding from 2008-2016, was constantly reduced and was officially eliminated since 13 May 2018. This was possible after importing around 145 MW of power from India through Dhalkebar – Mujaharpur Transmission line in FY 2018/19. Eradication of load shedding conveyed a new reform to energy sector of Nepal. Understanding the energy mix and its long term implications for Nepal’s Energy Sector, Ghising re-initiated the World Bank’s Grid Solar and Energy Efficiency Project agreed between World Bank and NEA in 2014. Further, NEA also signed PPA with private sectors for purchasing solar energy and connecting to national grid. Likewise, in December 2016, ADB also announced 20 million dollar grant to promote private sector investment in utility-scale solar power. This funding was to ensure installation of at least 25MW Solar projects by 2018 and was to be provided to private sector as viability gap funding. Though there were few bidders to develop the solar projects via the grant, none of the solar projects has been implemented until today’s date. This is because financial institutions and banks were not convinced to finance the solar projects in spite of government’s promotion to alternative energy sources for electricity. In FY2019/20, the total energy imported from India decreased by 38.55% compared to FY2018/19. Though the imports from India decreased, the total available energy in the system increased by 2.51% to 7,741 GWh in FY2019/20 over the corresponding figure of 7,551 GWh in FY 2018/19. Out of total available energy, total internal generation is 77.67% while the imported from India accounted for 22.33%. In order to be self-dependent as well as initiate the market for energy export to neighboring nations, NEA under the leadership of MD Kulman Ghising decided to install solar projects that would assist to fulfil energy demand in dry seasons. Thus, first unit of 25 MW solar project i.e. 1.5 MW was constructed and evacuated into the hydro-dominated national grid on June, 2020. This is NEA’s Solar project that is constructed through the World Bank’s Grid Solar and Energy Efficiency Project. The transition for the Solar Energy Sector in Nepal came in 2019/20 when Prime Commercial Bank approved to finance the 10 MW Mithila Solar PV Project of Eco Power Development Pvt. Ltd. Despite the financial closure, in absence of proper EPC and understanding of right technology, Eco Power Development couldn’t install the project. Mr. Sandeep Agrawal has been working in Nepal since 2014. He came in contact with the NEA officials regarding his automation of grid Substations using machine learning program. During one of his visits regarding the same, one of the officials suggested him to enter the Solar sector as he has experience in the sector. Sandeep Agrawal came in contact with Mr Nabin Singh, Chairman of Eco Power Development Pvt. Ltd and let him know about his Solar project experience. He along with Prashant Tatar introduced their solar company, Kushal Projects Nepal Pvt. Ltd and the technology and products used in Solar projects. Finally, an agreement for EPC was signed between Kushal Projects Nepal and Eco Power Development. In February 2020, after all required documentation, loan was dispersed by bank in March 2020 and in April 2020, LC for the products was opened. For promotion of Solar Power and its benefits, various programs were conducted. To initiate with the project, team consisting engineers and trained manpower were called from India, who reached the site on June 29, 2020. Various challenges were faced such that Covid -19 pandemic and unpredicted heavy rainfall. The governmental officials were not assured that the project can be implemented in such short span thus, regular monitoring was done for quality assurance. They were satisfied with the project execution procedure and supported the work. Thus, facing all these challenges, the project was completed within a period of seven months. Though, the PVsyst analysis of the site rendered generation of 50,000 units per day of electricity at the site, financial institutions were in doubt with the energy generation that successively would develop the required revenue. After all the hard work, on February 10 2021, NEA officials reached the site for testing. They were contented and satiated with the overall work and positive reports of tests carried out. Hence, on 16 February 2021, the Solar Project was commissioned and electricity from the project site was evacuated to the national grid at Dhalkebar and the electricity generated for first fifteen days was provided free of cost to the electricity department to record the generation. The average generation of the Solar project was more than 50,000 units per day. This proved that solar projects can generate electricity and can be a potential alternative source for energy generation to Nepal for its economic upliftment. The work of Kushal Projects Nepal was praised by all the officials of NEA and details of the work will be further depicted in the video. Kushal Projects Nepal ‘s work has been a pioneer to establish the scope of Solar Project in Energy generation and economic development. Further, the locals are equally benefitted as they are generating revenue against the land lease and also employment opportunities in the project. With the execution of the project, other companies with PPA of Solar projects since 2016 such as Api Power Private Limited also approached Kushal Projects Nepal for EPC of the projects. Sandeep Agrawal and his team’s work in the project has definitely persuaded the financial institutions to finance the projects. Hence, Kushal Projects are developing four Solar projects of Api Power. After successful commissioning and COD of the project, 75,110 units of electricity was generated per day and evacuated into the grid on 23 April 2021. This is an outstanding record from a Solar Project of 10 MW. The successful installation of the project has also been an achievement to the nation that evacuation of 10 MW solar project is done in the same grid where electricity from India is imported to Nepal. And the government has decided that Nepal will be importing 10 MW lesser electricity from India and the amount of electricity will be compensated from the project constructed by Kushal Projects Nepal.