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DAM-L LS: Nepali Times on Pico Hydro (fwd)
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Date: Mon, 8 Oct 2001 14:07:51 -0700 (PDT)
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Subject: LS: Nepali Times on Pico Hydro
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Nepali Times
27 April-3 May 2001 ( Issue #40)
Tiny is even more beautiful
Very small, locally-made hydro units are lighting up villages. People power
seems to be driving micro hydropower.
-Binod Bhattarai
Future mega-projects that make all headlines: Arun, Chisapani, Pancheswor,
or Kosi High Dam. But quietly, away from the media spotlight, villages all
over Nepal are lighting up with power from locally-crafted, locally-funded,
locally-run micro hydropower. The people, it seems, have got tired of
waiting for electricity to come to them, and they are now going to the
electricity. They are getting together to get soft loans, even pooling
savings, to build micro (below 100 kW) and pico (below 3 kW) hydro power
plants.
Nepal's first micro hydro plant was installed about 20 years ago. A gifted
and dedicated engineer named Akal Man Nakarmi first managed to couple a
generator to a food-processing mill near Malekhu to produce power. Next
came his turbine and generator compact, known as the Peltric set. Akal
Man's pelton turbine and induction generator combo was an instant hit.
Nepal had its first locally fabricated system that was small, tested, and
affordable for grassroots communities who could finance, build and operate
the system themselves. The modest and soft-spoken Akal Man went on to win
the Rolex Award, and today he is still in his workshop in Chhetrapati
banging away at yet another Peltric turbine. "This is the future of energy
in Nepal," he tells you. "Not another mega project costing a billion dollars."
Alongside Akal Man's successful tests of the prototype Peltric set, came a
government decision to subsidise rural electrification through the use of
micro hydro. The Agricultural Development Bank Nepal (ADB/N) that used to
provide loans to set up turbine-powered food processors began to include
micro hydro in its portfolio. Many traditional ghattaFs (water mills) were
upgraded to multi-purpose power units that ground grain more efficiently by
day and generated electricity by night.
Fifteen years later, Nepal has an estimated 1,000 micro hydros that use the
falling water of small brooks and streams all over the country to produce
electricity. And another 900 or so turbines are used for milling only. The
micros are not all problem-free-age and disrepair, ownership and management
problems have turned some into rusty hulks. Still, a majority are whirring
away, bringing the light of development to unlikely remote villages of the
country and quite literally empowering people.
And if small was not beautiful enough, many Nepali villages are going for
even tinier power plants: pico hydro. These provide electricity to light up
20-60 homes for several hours in the evenings and at dawn. During
"off-peak" daytime hours they sell power to recharge car-batteries that
villagers use to replace traditional kerosene-wick lamps and to watch
satellite television. Pico promoters tell us that the system is catching up
so fast in some districts (Ilam is one) that it may not be long before
every settlement there has its own local power "utility".
"People have seen bright lights in neighbouring villages and want to build
their own systems," says Bhola Shrestha, of Energy Systems. "Anyone would
want to do the same after learning that many villagers use electricity by
spending only a little more than what they spend on kerosene or candles."
With over 6,000 major and minor rivers and countless other fast-flowing
streams all cascading down at unbelievable gradients, Nepal could be a
hydropower superpower. But large power projects are expensive, need large
investments and loans, service mainly urban areas, and despite major
investments in the past ten years the proportion of Nepalis with access to
electricity remains at a low 15 percent. As an alternative source of
energy, Nepal's economy and terrain seems to be ideally suited for micro
and pico hydro.
All you need for pico hydro is a water source with about five litres per
second of water flow-less than what most irrigation channels in the hills
have. (For example, a traditional water mill runs on about 30 litres of
water per second). You need to divert this water through a 2.5 in polythene
pipe down a drop of at least 20 m into a pelton turbine to produce electric
current. The average per kilowatt cost of electricity generated is about Rs
100,000-120,000 and a one kW system can supply to up to 10 households using
100 watts each. There are about 700 such systems now operating in Nepal.
A 1997 study on pico hydros by Subarna Prasad Kapali found that the cost,
after subsidies, was between Rs 6,000-15,000 per household. The power
producers are co-operatives, individuals and farmer groups who charge flat
tariffs based on the electricity used. "Usually villagers pay about Rs 25 a
month for a 25 watt lamp, which is what they pay for kerosene for their
tukis," adds Shrestha. But there are problems slowing the march of the
pico: unavailability of start-up capital and inadequate support personnel
for repair and maintenance, for example. "Another major issue is the
quality of the systems," says Devendra Adhikary, coordinator of the Energy
Sector Assistance Programme, funded by the Danish Development Agency
(DANIDA). "After 25 years of doing micro hydro we think we need to have
certain quality standards in place."
Also isn't it true that pico hydros are good only for lighting, and that
they don't have the "economies of scale"? "This is a something that we're
also concerned about," admits Bhola Shresta, whose company Energy Systems.
The UK's Trent University is now training Asian pico power manufacturers to
address to some of these issues.
Nepali peltrics come in the 0.6-5kW range and the most-popular one kW unit
weighs just 35 kg. Pico promoters say the plants are so simple that Nepali
villagers have, with some training in peltrics, installed their own
systems. In his workshop, Akral Man Nakarmi has Peltrics to suit different
situations: low head (20 m), medium (40 m) and high head (200 m). There are
now over a dozen local turbine makers in Nepal who are pre-qualified by
different agencies to do surveys, manufacture and install micro hydro
systems. Akal Man's Kathmandu Metal Industries and the Biratnagar-based
Krishna Grill and Engineering Works are the market leaders.
With the Danish Development Agency (DANIDA) offering new subsidies, the
number of village co-operatives or individuals setting up their own pico
hydro units is expected to grow. A subsidy of Rs 55,000 per kW is to be
provided to those willing to build micro hydros less than three kW.
Projects larger than this and up to 100 kW get Rs 70,000 per kW. There are
also subsidies of Rs 27,000 per kW to add-ons for generating electricity
from improved ghattas or water mills. Besides, there are also subsidies for
the transport of electromechanical equipment and construction materials and
for rehabilitation of existoing systems.
"There has been an overwhelming response to the subsidy, about 300
individuals and groups have applied for support," says Adhikary. As the
first step toward quality control, ESAP has managed to get equipment
manufacturers and builders to agree to ensure that the systems deliver the
power they are installed to produce and that they are provided one-year
warranty. "Within a year we may develop other quality and safety
standards," he adds.
The growth of pico hydro in Nepal has been largely a result of private
initiative. The initiative hopes to repeat the success of Nepal's vastly
successful and sustainable biogas programme by introducing catalytic
subsidies.
There are grey areas that pico has to address for its own sustainability.
For now, when even major systems are failing to deliver electricity they
were supposed to, no one is complaining. Says Bikas Pandey, an expert on
micro hydro: "It is small but the beauty of that is that any individual or
a group of, say, five people can have a system."
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