Aug 15, 2017-
Power has been restored in almost all districts in eastern Nepal as most of the damage caused to the distribution system by floods resulting from last week’s torrential rains has been fixed, the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) said.
Many districts in the east had been without electricity since Friday. The state-owned power utility claimed that except for the 132 kV Duhabi substation which has been inundated, its entire infrastructure is functional.
According to NEA Managing Director Kulman Ghising, all districts in eastern Nepal except Sunsari and Morang have access to electricity. Jhapa, Morang, Sunsari, Ilam, Bhojpur, Dhankuta, Panchthar and other eastern districts had been without electricity.
“We have brought most of the damaged infrastructure back into operation,” said Ghising. “We have been distributing electricity to eastern Nepal by bypassing our substation at Duhabi.” As electricity demand has dropped with factories closed and people forced to move out of their homes, the NEA has been able to restore power without using the Duhabi substation.
Ghising told the Post that the NEA was making all-out efforts to repair the Duhabi substation, which is the hub of the electricity distribution system in the Eastern Region.
There was 2 feet of water inside the substation that houses equipment like transformers, control panel and circuit breakers.
“We used four diesel-powered pump sets and drained out the water from the substation,” said Ghising. “We have started checking and repairing the equipment damaged by the water. We expect to complete repairs by Tuesday.”
With the substation lying in water, 76 MW of electricity generated by nine hydropower projects owned by the NEA and independent power producers could not be fed into the supply system.
Privately-owned 3 MW Piluwa Khola Small, 1 MW Lower Piluwa Small, 4.5 MW Hewa Khola, 22 MW Mai Khola, 7 MW Mai Cascade, 10 MW Upper Mai Khola, 15 MW Hewa Khola A and 7.5 MW Jogmai Khola and NEA-owned 6 MW Puwa Khola are currently off the grid.
Similarly, the NEA has not been able to import electricity through the Kataiya-Kushwaha cross-border transmission line.
The NEA restored electricity supply through the Khimti-Dhalkebar and Hetauda-Chapur-Dhalkebar transmission lines on Saturday evening after it was cut off when large trees fell on the power cables following floods on Friday.
“We restored supply temporarily by bypassing the toppled tower,” said Ghising. Using a similar technique, the NEA has restored power in the Kabeli corridor where supply was cut off after a tower of the 132 kV Anarmani-Kabeli transmission line was swept away by floodwaters.
Telecom services resume
KATHMANDU: Telecommuni-cations service has resumed in most of the eastern Tarai after electricity supply was restored in places affected by floods. Nepal Telecom said all telecom services, which were in disarray till Sunday, have resumed in eastern parts of the country. However, landline service in Sunsari is still affected, Sovan Adhikari, joint spokesperson of NT, said. “Our technicians are working swiftly to charge more than 100 base transceiver stations (BTSs) in the eastern region which went offline due to power cuts in the region,” said Adhikari. Currently, less than 100 BTSs of NT are offline. “The number will be reduced significantly by tomorrow morning,” said Adhikari, adding, “In areas without electricity, we have used mobile diesel generators to produce electricity to charge the BTSs.” The Post couldn’t establish contact with Ncell, the privately owned telecom service provider, despite repeated attempts. (PR)
Source: The Kathmandu Post
