Kaligandaki A Hydroelectric Power Station is situated in Mirmi that lies in Kaligandaki Rural Municipality of

Syangja District Syangja District (; ) is a part of Gandaki Province, and is one of the List of districts of Nepal, seventy-seven districts of Nepal. Its headquarter is Putalibazar with a diverse population including Brahmin, Magar, Chhetri, Dalit and Gurung com ...

about 300 km to the west of

Kathmandu Kathmandu () is the capital and largest city of Nepal, situated in the central part of the country within the Kathmandu Valley. As per the 2021 Nepal census, it has a population of 845,767 residing in 105,649 households, with approximately 4 mi ...

and 100 km from

Pokhara Pokhara ( ) is a metropolis, metropolitan city located in central Nepal, which serves as the capital of Gandaki Province. Named the country's "capital of tourism" it is the List of cities in Nepal, second largest city after Kathmandu, with 599,5 ...

in the same direction in

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

. The

hydropower Hydropower (from Ancient Greek -, "water"), also known as water power or water energy, is the use of falling or fast-running water to Electricity generation, produce electricity or to power machines. This is achieved by energy transformation, ...

project is also the biggest hydropower project of Nepal. The dam and headworks are situated on the

Gandaki River The Gandaki River, also known as the Narayani and Gandak, is one of the major rivers in Nepal and a left-bank tributary of the Ganges in India. Its total catchment area is , most of it in Nepal. In the Nepal Himalayas, the Gandaki is notable f ...

at the confluence of the Andhikhola whereas the power house is located downstream, around a bend in the river, in Beltari (About 7 km towards the South-East of Mirmi). A long headrace tunnel connects the reservoir to the power station which contains three 48 MW

Francis turbine The Francis turbine is a type of water turbine. It is an inward-flow reaction turbine that combines radial and axial flow concepts. Francis turbines are the most common water turbine in use today, and can achieve over 95% efficiency. The pro ...

-generators. Owner and operator of the power plant is

Nepal Electricity Authority Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), founded on 16 August 1985, is the parent generator, transmittor and retail distributor of electric power under the supervision of the government of Nepal. NEA has its own power plants. In addition it also buys ...

. This hydropower is situated at the Gulmi-Syangja Border but the hydropower is in the Syangja District. It is a

run-of-river Run-of-river hydroelectricity (ROR) or run-of-the-river hydroelectricity is a type of hydroelectric generation plant whereby little or no water storage is provided. Run-of-the-river power plants may have no water storage at all or a limited amou ...

type of project and currently is the largest power plant of any kind in Nepal with an installed capacity of 144 MW. Construction started in the year 1997 and was completed in the year 2002. The three turbine & generators Toshiba Make were commissioned in March, April and May 2002. It was constructed primarily to curb the ever increasing energy demand at that time and eliminate

loadshedding A rolling blackout, also referred to as rota or rotational load shedding, rota disconnection, feeder rotation, or a rotating outage, is an intentionally engineered electrical power shutdown in which electricity delivery is stopped for non-over ...

prevalent due to the imbalance in demand and supply of energy. It was constructed with the financial aid of the

Asian Development Bank The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank to promote social and economic development in Asia. The bank is headquartered in Metro Manila, Philippines and maintains 31 field offices around the world. The bank was establishe ...

with total costs reaching US$354.8 million (50 billion NPR (approx)).

Hydrology and Sediments

The Kali Gandaki River originates in the high Himalayas carrying high sediment load. The river generates a suspended sediment load of 43 Mt/yr, of which around 25 per cent consists of sand. This sand has a high concentration of highly abrasive angular quartz. About 95 per cent of this suspended sediment load is delivered during the monsoon, between late May and late September and is large enough to completely fill the reservoir in a single monsoon season. Data on discharge, suspended sand concentration in the river, and on the flow diverted into the turbines is shown in figure 3. The suspended sand concentration in the river and delivered to the turbines suddenly spikes in early June. This corresponds to the date that the reservoir level is lowered, thereby mobilising sand. The sand concentration drops again when the reservoir level is brought back up to its impounding level, reducing both the flow velocity through the reservoir and the rate of sand transport. This sluicing procedure has nearly stabilised reservoir capacity, producing a sediment balance across the reservoir.

Transmission line

The power generated by the three turbines is evacuated to the central grid via a 132kV single circuit, a long transmission line to

, and a double circuit transmission line to

Butwal Butwal (), officially Butwal Sub-Metropolitan City (), previously known as Khasyauli (Nepali: खस्यौली), is a sub-metropolitan city and economic hub in Lumbini Province in West Nepal. Butwal has a city population of 195,054 as per t ...

. The electricity is sent to Lekhnath Municipality and Butwal (known as Butwal-1 and Butwal-2). A sub-station has been constructed in Lekhnath Municipality, Kaski district and the existing Jogikuti substation in Butwal has been upgraded.

References

{{commons category, Kali Gandaki A Dam Hydroelectric power stations in Nepal Dams in Nepal Gravity dams Dams completed in 2002 Run-of-the-river power stations Energy infrastructure completed in 2002 2002 establishments in Nepal Buildings and structures in Syangja District

Hydrology and Sediments

Transmission line

See also

References