Nepal: Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower Project

approved

The Upper Trishuli-1 Hydropower project (UT-1 or the Project) is a 216 mega-watt greenfield run-of-river hydropower plant on the Upper Trishuli River in Nepal. The Project is being developed by Nepal Water and Energy Development Company Private Limited (NWEDC), the Project Company, a special purpose vehicle incorporated under the laws of Nepal. The Project is developed under a 35-year (including five-year construction period) build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) model. The Project Development Agreement (PDA) was signed between the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources, and Irrigation and the NWEDC on Dec. 29, 2016. Under the PDA, the Sponsors will be responsible for the design, engineering, financing, construction, completion, commissioning, ownership, operation and maintenance and transfer of the Project. The Project will sell power to the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), the off-taker, under a 30-year Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). The PPA was entered between the NEA and the NWEDC on Jan. 28, 2018. Under the PPA, the NEA will buy the energy generated under a take-or-pay arrangement. The power will primarily be used for domestic consumption. The tariff is based on the standard feed-in-tariff for run-of-river projects in Nepal, which has a split tariff: one for the wet (summer) season and another for the dry (winter) season. The UT-1 project consists of a 100.5-meter (m) length, 30.9 m base width and a 30 m (founded on alluvium) high diversion concrete gravity dam in a narrow gorge located in the Trishuli River 275 m downstream of the confluence of the Langtang Khola (tributary) with the Bhote Khosi River, about 70 kilometers (km) to the north-east of Kathmandu. The diversion dam will create a small 2.1 hectares impoundment and divert via two intake tunnels each with a gate size of 3.25 x 6.5 m, up to 76 m3/s of water flowing through a 9.7 km long low-pressure headrace tunnel to a powerhouse with 3 x 72 mega-watt capacity turbines and returning the water to the Trishuli River approximately 10.7 km downstream of the dam. The Project will connect to a new Chilime-Trishuli transmission line via a 1.1 km long, high voltage extension from the UT-1 take-off yard. The Project will be accessed via existing public roads; however, NWEDC is in the process of constructing a 11.84 km access road on the right bank of the river to link the dam and the powerhouse locations.