A Review of Hydropower Projects in Nepal

Practicing security: securitisation of transboundary rivers by hydrocrats in Himalayan South Asia

This paper examines the intersection of regional geopolitics and the governance of transboundary rivers using the case studies of multipurpose reservoirs in Himalayan South Asia. It uncovers the various ways Indian hydrocracy uses its institutional and technical expertise to strengthen India's centrality in Nepal's water and hydropower sectors. The practices of security undertaken by the hydrocrats are classified as structural, institutional, and statutory acts. By focusing on practices of an epistemic community like hydrocrats, this paper addresses longstanding weaknesses of the securitisation theory of being elitist and ignoring the agency of mid-level bureaucrats. It also highlights the constructivist nature of international politics. The findings contribute empirically to securitisation theory's 'Paris School' of thought.

How will hydro-energy generation of the Nepalese Himalaya vary in the future? A climate change perspective

Despite being one of the proven clean-energy technologies, hydroelectricity is losing attention in global research. Hydroelectricity is extremely important for countries possessing the required water resources, already heavily reliant on it and those lacking the financial capacity to invest in other expensive energy technologies. This study assessed the possible impact of climate change (CC) on hydro-energy generation in the Nepalese Himalaya (possessing eight peaks out of 14 over 8000 m) with a tremendous hydropower potential (∼50,000 MW). A planned 1200 MW storage type Budhigandaki Hydroelectricity Project is taken as a case. We estimated the energy generation for the baseline as well as 10 CC scenarios considering RCPs 4.5 and 8.5 at monthly, seasonal, and annual temporal scales for the mid-century. Results show that energy generation is highly dependent on the reservoir operating rule. The average annual energy generation is expected to vary within -5 to +12% of the base case in the mid-century, with significant variations across the months. We also infer that designing hydro-projects based on ensembled climate values could lead to a "rosy" but less probable and risky picture of energy generation in the future. Therefore, assessment of a wide spectrum of plausible CC scenarios are recommended. Storage type projects with provision of flexible operating rules considering finer temporal resolution and allocation to competing users (in case of multipurpose projects) supported by appropriate policies are desirable for climate resiliency. Complementing the existing energy generation mix with other technologies in areas where hydroelectricity is expected to undergo adverse impacts of CC is warranted for attaining future energy security and environmental safeguarding. Possibility of additional energy due to CC is a strong motivation for this region to focus on hydroelectricity development in the future.

Assessing the snow cover dynamics and its relationship with different hydro-climatic characteristics in Upper Ganges river basin and its sub-basins

Snowmelt is an important source of water in upstream part of the Ganges river basin (GRB), which provides water for different purposes to its 655 million inhabitants. However, studies assessing relationship between snow cover dynamics and changes in hydro-climatic variables are limited within this region, motivating the current research. In this study, MODIS snow cover product (MOD10A1) was used to assess the snow cover area (SCA) dynamics within the Upper Ganges river basin (UGRB) and its sub-basins for the time period of 2002-2014; available climate and hydrological data were used to assess the hydrological characteristics within three selected sub-basins in Nepal; and relationships between snow cover and different hydro-climatic variables are established for three sub-basins owing to availability of hydro-climatic data. Results show that the average annual maximum SCA is around 24.6-47.5% for UGRB and its sub-basins. Upper Yamuna river basin (UYRB) with lowest mean elevation among the sub-basins shows a single SCA peak in spring within an annual cycle, whereas UGRB and the higher sub-basins show an additional lower peak in fall mainly resulted from snow sublimation. During 2002-2014, SCA shows slight decreasing trends for UGRB (Kendall's Tau τ = -0.039) and the higher elevation zones B (3001-4500 m a.s.l.) and C (>4500 m a.s.l.) of most sub-basins, with significance in Zone C of SaRB (τ = -0.070) and KoRB (τ = -0.062). Annual discharge for Gandaki river basin (GaRB) and Koshi river basin (KoRB) shows non-significant decreasing trends (τ = -0.182, -0.303) which are resulted from decreasing discharge in different seasons in different sub-basins. Seasonal correlation analysis indicates an important water supply from rainfall in GaRB and combined water supply from rainfall and snowmelt in KoRB, along with dominant contribution of precipitation in monsoon months and snowmelt in non-monsoon months for all the three sub-basins.

TIME to Change: An Evaluation of Practical Action Nepal’s Results Based Finance Program

Set against the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 7, and the need to increase biomass Improved Cookstove (ICS) adoption and sustained use across the globe, this paper presents an evaluation of Practical Action Nepal’s (PAN) Results Based Financing for Improved Cookstove Market Development in Nepal (RBF) project, which was conducted between January and April 2020. Nepal has a long history of International Development assistance, yet 65.8% of rural households still use firewood as their primary source of energy. With this in mind we aimed to understand the barriers, enablers and engagement strategies for the adoption and sustained use of Improved Cookstoves (ICS), map key stakeholder role perceptions and interactions, and identify areas for improvement to increase the sustained use of ICS in the focus communities. This paper uses the methodological approach from the qualitative Technology Implementation Model for Energy (TIME) for the data collection and analysis elements. Our core results show a direct need for improved communication between all key stakeholder groups, the impact of demand and supply side financial incentives in creating reputational risk for community-based key stakeholders, and how the RBF mechanism promotes initial end-user adoption but not sustained use of ICS due to a focus on immediate results.

Energy Transition toward Cleaner Energy Resources in Nepal

Energy is an important input for socioeconomic development and human well-being. The rationality of energy transitions toward cleaner energy resources is not only to improve individual living conditions, but also to enhance the economic growth of a nation. Nepal is considered to be one of the countries with a low per-capita electricity use, heavily relying on traditional energy resources such as firewood and agricultural residues. The country is rich in hydropower resources. However, various economic and socioeconomic constraints have left the significant potential for hydroelectricity untapped. This study describes the energy transition patterns in Nepal based on a literature review and field survey of household energy use in the winter. We collected data from 516 households in the Solukhumbu, Panchthar, and Jhapa districts of Nepal. The rate of per-capita electricity consumption was 330 kWh/capita/year, which is significantly lower than that of other contemporary global societies such as India 1000 and China 4900 kWh/capita/year. The increasing trend in hydroelectricity production has optimistically transformed the energy sector toward cleaner resources; this correlates with the GDP per capita. Solar home systems, mini- and micro-hydropower plants, biogas technology, and improved cook stoves have been widely used, which has lowered the health and environmental burdens in rural areas. By analysing the survey data, we found that 25% of the households only relied on traditional cooking fuel, while 67% and 8% of the households relied on mixed and commercial cooking fuels, respectively. Moreover, 77% and 48% of traditional and mixed-fuel-using households were unhappy with current cooking fuels while 40% and 66% of these households preferred to use clean cooking fuels. The share of traditional energy resources decreased from 78% to 68%, while that of commercial energy resources increased from 20% to 28% from 2014/15 to 2019/20. This study suggests that future energy policies and programs should acknowledge the reality of energy transition to achieve sustainability by establishing reliable and clean sources of energy.

Modeling the future impacts of climate change on water availability in the Karnali River Basin of Nepal Himalaya

It's unequivocal that the global climate is changing, including the rise in atmospheric temperature and variability in amount and pattern of precipitation, and the rate of temperature change in the Himalayan region is higher than the global average. Since precipitation and temperature are the major driving factors of water resources in the Himalayas both upstream and downstream regions, it is important to understand theimpacts of climate change in water resource availability in the future. In this study, we analyzed the historical hydro-climate data and developed a suitable ensemble of the Coordinated Regional Downscaling Experiment (CORDEX) climate models for the Karnali River Basin (KRB) in western Nepal and assessed the future water availability in different climate scenarios using a semi-distributed catchment scale hydrological model the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). The climate data analysis shows that the atmospheric temperature is rising throughout the basin but there is high spatial variability in precipitation trend. The historical river discharge data analysis do not show any significant trend, however, there is some inter-annual variability. Future projection shows that the annual precipitation amount will increase compared to the baseline so does the river discharge. However, this increase is not uniform for all seasons. The post-monsoon season having the lowest observed precipitation will get lesser amount of precipitation in the future and the river discharge also follows the same trend. These anomalies play a crucial role in determining the future water availability for agriculture, hydropower, ecosystem functioning and its services availability to the people living in the KRB as well as in the downstream region.

Domestic Socioeconomic Barriers to Hydropower Trading: Evidence from Bhutan and Nepal

Bhutan has increased exports of surplus hydropower generation, whereas Nepal has been suffering from domestic power shortages. Why has Bhutan successfully promoted hydropower development and exports, while Nepal has failed to do so? This paper focuses on inherent development barriers that stem from domestic power supply, internal governance systems, and indigenous societal sensitivity. There are lessons to be learned from Bhutan’s practices that could be applied in Nepal. First, hydropower development can be severely affected by electricity scarcity that arises when power export is privileged over domestic power supply. Nepal has fallen into this negative loop, whereas Bhutan has overcome it through policy interventions that ensure visible links between power exports and domestic power consumption. Second, the sector reforms in the two countries contrast in terms of institutional, operational, and financial efficiency. Without fundamental reforms, Nepal’s sector-wide inefficiency fuels a vicious circle. Third, local resource conflicts and social complexities have made Nepal’s hydropower projects more complicated than Bhutan’s. In planning hydropower projects, it is crucial to pay careful attention to domestic stakeholders and local benefits. Planners and governments must ensure that projects are designed with extensive benefit sharing mechanisms, sustainable value chains, effective sector reforms, and sufficient societal conflict management.

A Geospatial Assessment of Small-Scale Hydropower Potential in Sub-Saharan Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa has been at the epicenter of an ongoing global dialogue around the issue of energy poverty. More than half of the world’s population without access to modern energy services lives there. It also happens to be a sub-continent with plentiful renewable energy resource potential. Hydropower is one of them, and to a large extent it remains untapped. This study focuses on the technical assessment of small-scale hydropower (0.01–10 MW) in Sub-Saharan Africa. The underlying methodology was based on open source geospatial datasets, whose combination allowed a consistent evaluation of 712,615 km of river network spanning over 44 countries. Environmental, topological, and social constraints were included in the form of constraints in the optimization algorithm. The results are presented on a country and power pool basis.