The Upper Marshyangdi-A Hydropower Project is likely to start generating electricity at full capacity within a month. The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has asked the project’s builder to expedite completion of the second unit by mid-Dec considering a surge in demand and a drop in overall production during the upcoming dry season.

Currently, the project’s first unit is operational and feeding 25 MW of electricity into the national grid while the second unit with a capacity of 25 MW has not gone into production. 

During a meeting last week, NEA Managing Director Kulman Ghising had asked project officials to bring the second into operation at the earliest and help the authority in its drive to free the country from power cuts. “Upper Marshyangdi project officials were very positive and said that they would have the second unit ready by mid-December,” said Prabal Adhikari, spokesperson for the NEA. “Once the unit is ready for operation, there will be a weeklong test transmission before commercial generation is started.”

With water flow decreasing in the rivers as winter has set in, the addition of electricity in the national grid with help the NEA’s move to keep the Kathmandu Valley free from power cuts, Adhikari added.

As power generation at the 70 MW Middle Marshyangdi and 69 MW Marshyangdi projects will decrease significantly, the sub-station at the Marshyangdi corridor will be able to handle additional electricity during the dry season, according to the NEA. “However, we will have to upgrade our sub-station and transmission line for the upcoming wet season.”

The first unit of Upper Marshyangdi went online in the first week of November after lying idle for more than a month following a weeklong test phase that started in September-end.