Modular Pico-Hydro Power Plant Mini-Grid for Remote Himalayan Villages in Nepal
Abstract
Often first time electrification of a remote, high-altitude village in the Nepal Himalayas is through a 15-50 kW micro-hydro power (MHP) plant, heavily subsidized by the Nepal government and foreign donor agencies. However, many newly built MHP plants fail to provide the expected electricity within a short period of time due to oversizing the system, the lack of skills to operate it and pay for the used electricity. In short such a “first-time electrification system” can’t be sustained by the local users, crushing the dreams of the villagers, leaving behind not much more than a bad experience. To address these shortcomings, RIDS-Nepal has developed a “modular pico-hydro power plant” concept for rural, off-grid village electrification, enabling villages with access to a river or stream, to start with a mere 1kW power plant and increasing the power generation incrementally by 1 kW as their power demand and ability to operate, maintain and pay for the power plant increases over the years. This paper describes the key learnings and the respective changes made to the “modular pico-hydro power plant” during the final design and construction of this pilot project from 2017 to 2018, and practical experience of the first 6 months of operation since it was commissioned in November 2018. Data collected from the integrated monitoring system, feedback from local users and the local system operators are described and discussed. Recommended changes for future systems based on this modular approach are also discussed.