A 220/132 kilovolt (kV) substation has been completed in Bahrabise Municipality, Sindhupalchowk. The Bahrabise Sub-station has 220/132 kV, 1160 MVA and 132/11 kV, 5 MVA power transformers. Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has stated that the substation equipment based on the Gas Insulated System (GIS) technology has passed through a test. The construction of another substation of 400 kV is underway.
The 102 MW Madhya Bhotekoshi Hydropower Project built in Sindhupalchowk under the leadership of Chilime Hydropower Company, a subsidiary of the NEA, will be connected to this substation. After the production of electricity from the Madhya Bhotekoshi Hydropower Project starts, the Bahrabise substation will be charged using the same electricity.
The tunnel is currently being repaired after it leaked while testing the structure and equipment to start power generation from Madhya Bhotekoshi. According to the NEA, the work is being done with the goal of completing the tunnel repair by the second week of August.
Kulman Ghisingh, the executive director of the NEA, on Saturday monitored the repair work of the substation, transmission line and tunnel at Madhya Bhotekoshi. He requested the project management and construction professionals to complete the entire work before the stipulated time. Executive Director Ghising said that since the construction of the Bahrabise sub-station has been completed, there is no problem for the transmission of the electricity generated from Madhya Bhotekoshi.
An alternate arrangement has been made temporarily for the electricity flow of Madhyabhotekoshi. The electricity reaching the Bahrabise sub-station from the 200 kV transmission line will be reduced to 132 kV through the same substation and will be transmitted through the 132 kV transmission line. For this purpose, the 132 kV single circuit transmission line built by Shiva Shree Hydropower, the promoter company of the 22 MW Upper Chaku, will be transformed into a double circuit transmission line and taken to the Barhabise sub-station. Under the Tamakoshi-Kathmandu 220-400 kV transmission line project, a 43 km transmission line is under construction from the New Khimti substation at Ramechhap to Bahrabise. Of the 118 towers on the transmission line, only two are left to be constructed. One of these towers is not being constructed near the new Khimti substation due to obstruction from the locals.
According to the authority, there is a problem in laying 1.3 km of wire because the land-owners who are in the right of way of the transmission line in the same area have demanded 100 percent compensation for the land. Out of the 43 km segment of the transmission line, 34 km of wire has been laid.
The construction of a 46 km 400 kV double circuit transmission line from Bahrabise to Lapsiphedi in Kathmandu is in the final stage. Out of the 122 towers on the 46 km transmission line, five are left to be constructed due to obstruction from the locals of Lapsiphedi. Nitesh Poudel, the project head, informed Republica that the compensation for the acquisition of land for the construction of the tower pad is in the process of being distributed now as the obstruction posed by the locals has been removed.
Out of the 46 km transmission line, wire has been laid in a 42 km stretch, with the work being left only in the blocked areas.
The Tamakoshi-Kathmandu transmission line and substation have been constructed to transmit the electricity of the hydroelectric projects of the Tamakoshi and Sunkoshi rivers and their tributaries to the national transmission system. The project has investments from the Nepal government and NEA and a concessional loan from the Asian Development Bank.
