IMPACT OF DISASTER IN

ENERGY SECTOR OF
NEPAL

Prepared By
Manoj Paudel

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 Contents
Energy Sector of Nepal

Disaster Profile of Nepal and

Vulnerability of Electricity Sector

Major Disaster Events and Damages

Building Resilient Energy System

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 Energy Sector of Nepal

WECS, 2010

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 Electricity Consumption
in Nepal

WECS, 2010

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 Existing Electricity
Scenario
Total On-Grid Generation = 782.5 MW

1152 community owned microhydro plants

(MHP) with totaled installed capacity of
22,830 kW (july 2013)
600,000 (July 2014), Solar Home System
(SHS) / Small Solar home System(SSHS),
with total capacity of about 10 MW
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 Disaster Profile of Nepal and
Vulnerability of Electricity Sector

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 Disaster Profile of Nepal
Major Disasters of Nepal affecting
infrastructure
Flood (Severe in monsoon, due to high
precipitation)
Landslides( due to precipitation and earthquake)
Earthquake (no particular season)
Infrastructures:
Generation(Civil structures, powerhouse )
Transmission(transmission towers)
Distribution (substation, distribution poles)

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 Flood Susceptibility
Nepal is divided into 7 river basins
the Kankai Mai River Basin,
the Koshi River Basin,
the Bagmati River Basin,
the Narayani River Basin,
the West Rapti River Basin,
the Karnali River Basin,
and the Mahakali River Basin.
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 Vulnerable terai districts
to Flood

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 Landslide Susceptibility
Map

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 Earthquake hazard map (100 yr
return Period)

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 Vulnerability of Major Power
Sector

Landslide
Nepals
hydropower
plants
(Generation
Infrastructure )
lie in Landslide
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prone region. 12
 Vulnerability of Major Power
Sector

Earthquake
Nepals
hydropower
plants
(Generation
Infrastructure )
lie in
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earthquake 13
 Vulnerability of Major Power
Sector

Flood
Nepals
electricity
transmission
and distribution
Infrastructure
lie in Flood
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hazard region.14
 Vulnerability of MHP

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 Vulnerability of Solar Energy
System

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 Major Disaster Events of
Nepal

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 1993 Flood of South
Central Nepal
Event Scenario
Unprecedented high intensity precipitation
(cloud burst) occurred in the upper part of
the Mahabharat Range of Makawanpur and
Dhading districts, covering three major
waters sheds- Bagmati in the east, Trishuli
in the north, and Rapti in the south on
July 19, 1993.
Flood was later accompanied by Landslides

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Impact
Damage to the Kulekhani hydropower
system, consisting of two power plants and
providing 40% of the national power
production resulted in heavy load shedding
which affected affected the whole of the
national economy (UNDP, 1997)
The gross capacity of the reservoir was
reduced by 10.19 million cubic metres of its
capacity at construction, of which 7.71
million cubic metres of sediment were due
to the 1993 floods.
The damage to Kulekhani Penstock pipe
alone amounted to about 200 million NRs
(Dhital et al. 1993).
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 The Koshi Flood 2008
Event Scenario
Nepal had a devastating flood in 2008 in
eastern region due to heavy monsoon
rains in Koshi River Basin, one of the
largest river basin among the major
three river systems in the country. On 18
August, the Koshi River breached an
embankment through an eastern
retaining wall damaging two dam spurs

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Impact
Damage of 60 KV and 132 KV
transmission line with 5 towers
caused disruption of electricity
supply

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Power outages due to koshi flood
Days of Disruption of services due to
flood

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 Sindhupalchowk
LandSlide 2014
Event Scenario
A massive landslide occurred at around
02.30am, local time on Saturday, 2 August
2014 at Jure village in Sindhupalchowk
district in the boarder of Mankha and
Ramche VDC.
The landslide blocked Sunkoshi River
creating a high dam across the river.

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Impact
According to Nepal Electricity Authority
(NEA), there was shortfall of 66.5MW
electricity in the national grid due to the
landslide.
Power transmission
from five hydropower
projects
Bhotekoshi (45MW),
Sunkoshi (10MW),
Sanima Sunkoshi
(2.5MW),
Chaku (6MW) and Sanima Sunkoshi
Bhairabkunda (3MW) inundated
was
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halted 24
 Nepal Earthquake 2015
Event Scenario
On Saturday, 25 April 2015 at 11:56 local time, a 7.6
magnitude earthquake as recorded by Nepals
National Seismological Centre (NSC), struck Barpak
in the historic district of Gorkha, about 76 km
northwest of Kathmandu.
The catastrophic earthquake was followed by more
than 300 aftershocks greater than magnitude 4.0
(as of 7 June 2015). Four aftershocks were greater
than magnitude 6.0, including one measuring 6.8
which struck 17 days after the first big one with the
epicentre near Mount Everest.

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 Earthquake affected districts
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Impacts
Generation under operation
115MW severely damaged
60 MW partially damaged
Generation under construction
1000 MW partially damaged
MHPs affected
Number 262
Capacity 3712.5 kW
For distribution, about 800 km of
distribution lines at different voltage levels
(33 kV, 11 kV and 400 V) and 365
transformers at different capacity (from 15
to 300 kVA) have been damaged and are 27
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 The total cost of physical damage is about
NPR 17,807 million, including NPR 5,575
million on the public side and NPR 12,231
million on the private side.
Cost of recovery and build back better is
estimated to be NPR 18,586 with NPR 5,693
million and NPR 12,893 for public and private
assets.
About 603,000 households affected have lost
access to electricity, including 91,200
households for grid electricity and the rest for
offgrid electricity
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Building Resilient Energy
Sector

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Towards Resilient Energy
Sector
Codes for Infrastructures to cope
with potential disasters

Decentralization of Energy Sector

Smart Grid

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 Practices around the
Worldand major
Elevating the substations
equipments above inundation level

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 Strengthening of Distribution poles

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 Decentralization and
Diversification
Multi-grid System
Standalone solar systems for hospitals,
schools so that disruption in main grid does
not affect the social sector
Decentralized grids are also more energy
efficient than centralized electricity grids
because as electricity streams through a
power line a small fraction of it is lost to
various factors. The longer the distance the
greater the loss.
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 Smart Grid

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 Advantages
The smart grid allows customers to make
better decision about their power usage.
They can schedule the run time of their
appliances and can even contribute to the
grid during peak time.
Smart grid maintains a constant voltage
and power factor besides the availability of
electricity at all times from power grid.
Many renewable sources such as wind
power, solar energy, fossil fuels, micro
hydropower, to name a few, can be
integrated into the smart grid as plugged- 35
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 Characteristics of the smart
grid, but not limited to

Fault Tolerant and Self-healing

Active participation of the consumer
Resistant to attacks and disasters
Improved Power Quality
Accommodation to Distributed Generators
Reduced carbon footprints
Used in Countries: US, China, Australia, Brazil,
Austria

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 References
Nepal Disaster Report 2013
Nepal Disaster Report 2011
Baseline for Rural and Renewable Energy Technologies (July
2012), AEPC
Nepal Hazard Risk Assessment-Part 1, ADPC, NGI, CECI
Nepal Earthquake Post Disaster Needs Assessment, Sector
Reports
Hardening and Resiliency, US energy response to recent
hurricane seasons, US DOE (August 2010)
A year in Review, 2012/2013, Nepal Electricity Authority
Climate Risk and Adaptation in the Electric Power Sector
Websites:
www.ekantipur.com
www.wikipidia.com

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 Thank You !!!

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