Kathmandu, June 9: The construction of 400 kV Hetauda substation in Hetauda Sub-Metropolitan City of Makwanpur-11, Thanabharyang has been completed.

Nepal’s third largest 400 kV Hetauda substation, based on gas insulated switchgear (GIS) technology, has been completed and brought into operation from Friday, according to Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA). The substation has been constructed for strengthening and expansion of electricity transmission and distribution system within the country.

Similarly, construction of 220 kV and 132/11 kV substations in Thanabharyang from Nepal-India Electricity Transmission and Trade Project was completed and charged on Friday itself. To make the east-west power supply reliable and qualitative within the country and for electricity trade with India, Dhalkebar is the first automatic substation in the country, Inaruwa is the second and Hetauda is the third largest substation in the country.

With the completion of the construction of the Hetauda substation, the infrastructure for supplying about 4,000 megawatts of electricity has been prepared, said the NEA. After the completion of the Hetauda-Dhalkebar-Inaruwa 400 kV transmission line project, around 4,000 megawatts of electricity can be transmitted east to west from Dhalkebar. 

It is expected that electricity supply will be strengthened domestically and electricity trade between Nepal and India after the completion of Hetauda-Dhalkebar-Inaruwa 400 kV transmission line. Under the project, the construction of Dhalkebar-Inaruwa section is in the final stage, while Hetauda-Dhalkebar section is under construction, said the NEA. 

The construction of the transmission line is not speedy enough due to the obstruction of the locals in Ward No. 11, 15, 16 and 17 of Hetauda Sub-Metropolitan City. However, the construction is moving on in places where there are no obstacles.

Managing Director of NEA Kul Man Ghising said that as electricity would be supplied locally from Hetauda substation, it would help to make electricity supply more reliable and qualitative in Hetauda, Bharatpur, Simara and Birgunj areas.

Ghising said, “The electricity generated by the hydropower projects of the river corridor in the central region of Nepal would transmit into the national transmission grid and it would be easier to export the surplus electricity to India through the Hetauda-Dhalkebar 400 kV transmission line.

The substation will facilitate the flow of electricity from Hetauda to the New Butwal substation via Bharatpur, Bardaghat. Shukra Devkota, chief of the project, said that the Hetauda substation had been built in such a way that it could be further expanded in the future as per the need. 

The 400 kV double-circuit transmission line to be built from Ratmate in Nuwakot under the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Project would connect to Hetauda substation. Devkota said that the necessary infrastructure had been constructed at Hetauda substation in this regard.

The expansion and construction of 400 kV substation in Hetauda, Dhalkebar and Inaruwa was started under the National Electricity Development Decade Programme with the joint investment of the government and the authority. 

All three substations under the project have been completed. In December 2018, the contract was awarded for the construction of Hetauda 400 kV substation. The project was completed with an estimated cost of Rs. 3 billion.

The substation construction was financed by government and NEA investments, along with concessional loans from the World Bank under the Nepal-India Electricity Transmission and Trade Project.