Description

Nepal first largest grid tied solar project, under the project name 25 MWP Utility Scale Grid -Tie Solar Farms Project, has successfully completed its first phase, generating 1.25 MW power. Minister of Energy, Water Resource and Energy, Barsha Man Pun, inaugurated the project in April, 2018.The project was initially undertaken by Fichtner to carry out the Design Review and Construction Supervision work. However, NEA terminated the agreement with Fichtner due unsatisfactory progress of project and awarded the consulting work to NEA Engineering Company in 2019. Since then the project has started as planned by NEA and its contractor (Risen). As the solar sites are scattered into seven places, it was planned to commission the project in three different phases. Among 7 sites (Staff quarter, Ratamate, Keraghari, Helipad, Coffee Area 1, Coffee Area 2, Forebay), Forebay is the smallest plot with cumulative AC power 1.25 MW and total 4664 number of solar modules.

The target of Project was to complete it by 2020 but a sudden outbreak of COVID-19 stifled the project’s implementation process, as its Contractor is a China based Company. Despite lockdown measures taken by Government of Nepal to contain the spread of COVID-19, the project team worked with safety measures, with minimal number workers to maintain physical distancing at site. As a result, the first milestone of project-- to evacuate 1.25 MW from Forebay Site—materialized on May, 2020. The power generation from Forebay site has been evacuated into national grid through substation of Devighat Hydropower substation on 3^rd June 2020. The grid connection was successfully completed with support and presence of NEA, NEC and Risen team.

This project has been envisioned as major milestone to fulfil government’s target of building 500 MW of solar plant in next five years. It has paved a way for Nepalese power sector to move towards energy mix.

Table 1 Information of the Forebay Site

Table 2 Energy Generated on the day of grid connection