Kathmandu, June 9: The construction of the third largest 400 kV Hetaunda Substation has been completed, creating the infrastructure to transmit 4,000 MW of electricity.

Facing several obstacles including COVID-19 pandemic, land acquisition issues and obstruction from local people, the construction of Nepal's third largest 400 kV Hetauda Substation has finally been completed.

With a capacity to transmit 4000 MW of electricity, the substation will drastically improve the quality of electricity supply in the country, resulting in meeting internal demand and exporting remaining surplus electricity to India.

The completion of the project is possible due to consistent efforts, including frequent site visits and guidance from Kul Man Ghising, Managing Director of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA).

"The construction of 400 kV Hetaunda Substation has been completed at Makwanpur-11 Thanabhayang in Hetaunda sub-district to strengthen and expand the power transmission and distribution system in the country," said Mr. Ghising.

However, the obstruction of 400 kV transmission line is still uncertain due to the obstruction created by a handful of people in Hetauda Sub-Metropolitan City.

"We have almost completed the Dhalkebar-Inaruwa section of the project. NEA needs the support of local political leaders, elected representatives and local administration to remove the obstruction in Hetauda so that Nepal has system from East to West to transmit the electricity. As work is underway in this section, this section will also be completed soon," said MD Ghising.

To ensure reliable and quality east-west power supply within the country and for power trade with India, Dhalkebar Substation is the first automatic substation in the country, Inaruwa is the second and Hetaunda is the third largest substation in the country.

Nepal's third largest 400 kV Hetaunda substation based on Gas Insulated System (GIS) technology has been completed and commissioned from Friday (June 7, 2024). Similarly, the construction of 220 and 132 11 kV substations at Thanabhayangmani under the Nepal-India Electricity Transmission and Trade Project was completed and commissioned on Friday itself.

With the completion of the construction of Hetaunda Substation, the infrastructure structure capable of supplying about 4,000 MW of electricity has been prepared.

After the completion of the Hetaunda-Dhalkebar-Inruwa 400 kV transmission line project, 4000 MW of electricity can be transmitted from Dhalkebar from east to west.

Under the project, the construction of the Dhalkebar-Inaruwa section of the 400 kV transmission line is in the final stage, while the Hetaunda-Dhalkebar section is under construction.

The construction of the transmission line is not completed due to the obstruction of the local people in wards 15, 16, 17 and 11 of Hetaunda sub-metropolitan city. The construction will be done in places where there are no obstacles.

Kulman Ghising, Managing Director of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), said that the power will be supplied locally from Hetaunda Substation and it will help to make the power supply more reliable and quality in Hetautda, Bharatpur, Simra and Birgunj areas.

MD Ghisingh said, "The power generated by the hydropower projects of the river corridor in the central region of Nepal will be fed into the national transmission grid and the surplus power saved after consumption in the country will be easier to export to India through the Hetauda-Dhalkebar 400 kV transmission line. It will facilitate the flow.

Shukar Devkota, the project manager, said that the Hetaunda substation has been built in such a way that it can be expanded in the future as per the requirements.

The 400 kV double circuit transmission line to be constructed by the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) from Ratmate in Nuwakot will be connected to the Hetaunda substation. Devkota, the project manager, mentioned that the necessary infrastructure has been constructed at the Hetaunda Substation.

Hetauda, Dhalkebar Inruwa 400 kV has been constructed under the National Electricity Development Decade Program with the joint investment of the government and NEA. All three substations under the project have been completed.

In December 2018, the contract for the construction of the Hetauda 400 kV substation was awarded.

In December 2018, a contract agreement was signed for the construction of 220-132-11 kV Hetauda substation, which was constructed by the Nepal India Electricity Transmission and Trade Project with the investment of the government and the authority and the concessional loan of the World Bank. The estimated cost of the 400, 220 and 132 kV Hetauda substations is three billion rupees.

Construction has been affected by the global spread of the corona epidemic and the restrictions imposed to control and prevent it. Due to the corona epidemic, the various equipment and technicians to connect the substation reached the project site at the scheduled time and there were some delays in the construction of the project due to other reasons.