Kulekhani Dam

The Kulekhani Dam is a rock-fill dam on the Kulekhani River near Kulekhani in Makwanpur District of Narayani Zone, Nepal. The primary purpose of the dam is hydroelectric power generation and it supports the 60 MW Kulekhani I and 32 MW Kulekhani II Hydropower Stations. Construction began in 1977 and Kulekhani I was commissioned in 1982. Kulekhani II was commissioned in 1986 and a third power station, the 14 MW Kulekhani III was expected to be commissioned in May 2015 but is delayed due to issues with the builder. The project has not been completed until the year 2017 and is expected to generate electricity by the end of 2018. The US$117.84 million project received funding from the World Bank, Kuwait Fund, UNDP, Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund and OPEC Fund. It is owned by Nepal Electricity Authority.

The 114 m (374 ft) tall dam creates a reservoir called Indra Sarobar which stores 85,300,000 m³ (69,200 acre⋅ft) of water. From the reservoir, water is sent to the Kulekhani I Hydropower Station via a 5.8 km (3.6 mi) headrace tunnel to a gate house which controls the flow of water to the power station. From the gate house water travels down a 1,340 m (4,400 ft) long penstock where it reaches the underground power station. It contains two 30 MW Pelton turbine-generators. The difference in elevation between the reservoir and the power station affords a net hydraulic head of 550 m (1,800 ft). Water discharged from the power station then enters a series of tunnels and diversions where it reaches the Kulekhani II Hydropower Station which is also located underground and contains two 16 MW Francis turbine-generators. The elevation difference between the reservoir and the power station affords a net hydraulic head of 284.1 m (932 ft). The dam and reservoir are in the Bagmati River basin while the power stations are in the Rapti River basin.

Construction of the Kulekhani III Hydropower Station has been underway since 2008 and has yet not been completed. The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has extended the completion deadline of the Kulekhani 3 Hydropower Project for the fifth time to January 2018 as construction has been running late due to its slowpoke contractor. The project’s civil contractor Sino Hydro has completed 98 percent of the construction, but there has been little progress in the installation of the turbine, water gate and transmission lines to evacuate the electricity generated by the plant. It will use the tailwaters of Kulekhani II and have an installed capacity of 14 MW.

Text imported from Wikipedia article "Kulekhani Reservoir" and modified on June 3, 2020 according to the CC-BY-SA 4.0 International license.