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Department of Civil
and Environmental
Engineering
Spring 2017
Building a Hydro-Power
Plant with Water Supply
in the Melamchi-Project
in Kathmandu, Nepal
Supervisor:
Leif Lia
Co-supervisor:
Oddbjørn Bruland
In cooperation with:
PEEDA
The Melamchi tunnel under construction
Kristine Nyvoll
Background
In the mountainous Nepal a significant
amount of electricity is produced through
hydropower, approximately 800 MW. Several of
the hydropower plants are built with influence
from Norway and Norwegian organizations,
and companies still have ownership in the
power production. Because of the topography
in the country, the steep valleys and the high
mountains, significant season reservoirs have
not yet been built. That leads to a very unreliable
power production. In the dry seasons and during
winter and spring, the electricity is switched off
16-17 hours per every 24 hours. This is still the
situation in Nepal, and the big earthquake in
2015 slowed the construction-phase of many
new hydropower plants.
The Kathmandu Valley is about to get a new
water supply through the Melamchi-project.
Transmission tunnels have been constructed
between rivers northeast of Kathmandu, that
supposedly shall transferwaterwithgoodquality
in copious amounts to citizens and industry. It
has earlier been investigated if the project can
combine water supply and power production,
but because of political – and financial matters
the hydropower part has not been prioritized.
There is still potential to make the Melamchi-
project into a Multipurpose Project (MPP) and
I will investigate alternative ways to accomplish
this.
MASTER THESIS