A trip to Kirne

I've been to the power-plant for the first time. In my mind, powerplants conjour up images either of smoke-belching coal-fired monstrosities, or massively disruptive projects such as Three Gorges dam in China.

So here is what I found along the Khimti river:
Let's start at the top, where the water flows in. Notice a few things here. First, there is no large dam blocking the flow of the river. There is a small crest (and all the rocks on the lower part of the picture are placed there - they are not naturally there). The intake is under the concrete wall in the centre of the picture. By doing it this way, the river does not die from lack of water and you avoid making large structures across it. I really, really wanted to fish along the concrete wall, as there were some nice ones swimming in the clear waters there! The picture is taken from a bridge, and you can see the bridge clearly in the next picture.


The water coming in carries lots of silt, sand and rocks with it.
These will wear down a turbine very swiftly, so you need to build some pools where the water can "rest" and get rid of most of the sediments. Again, this can be done either with the landscape or against it. Take a look! Here, the pools are lodged between hill and river, not obstructing the natural flow of the water and not forcing people to move away from farmlands or similar. It is very unobtrusive, and I quite like that. There is a tunnel through the hill behind the two small houses you can see here, and this leads down to a mountain-hall containing the turbines. The water-level is not too high as this picture was taken at the end of the wet-season. For the next 4-5 months, water-levels will fall and hopefully pick up again around May next year.

So the water flows through the tunnel, hitting the turbines with a pressure of 60 bar. The aim is to convert this pressure to energy, and to leave just enough energy in the water to let it just clear the turbines and drain away. This pressure increased the water-temperature, so some smart souls have started looking at building fish-farms using the water from the turbines! The temperature is ideal for that, apparently.

The water flows out into this river. This is the Tama Koshi, and upstream of this there will be developments over the next few years. Along this river is a small village called Kirne, and this is where the workers in the plant are settled. Himal Power (my employer) has built a school, a clinic and a small sports-field for the local community. This ensures that there are good education and health-facilities around, and these are an important part of our CSR efforts.


All that aside, it is jawdroppingly beautiful there. Little prosperous homesteads dot the landscape, kids are playing (and they love the instant gratification of a digital camera), and people go about their business.


Note the lightpost behind the kids. The whole area is electrified and does not suffer the loadshedding endemic to the rest of the country. How? The hydro-powered generator used to provide power during construction has been handed over to the local community. With our support and their efforts, 3500 homes have been electrified and another 3500 will be added over the next 12 months. That is making a difference for these villages, and it sets them on the road to a singificant increase in their opportunities and their quality of life. It is hard not to feel inspired by seeing such clear progress on the ground - companies can make a difference for the better.