Future Prospects of Hydropower Development in Nepal through

Enhancement in R&D Activities of Turbine Testing Lab

Sailesh Chitrakar, Ravi Koirala, Hari Prasad Neopane, BholaThapa
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kathmandu University
Abstract
The current trend of hydropower development in Nepal infers a lack of collaboration between
industries and institutions. Often referred to as a country blessed with a massive geographical
diversity and water resources, not even 2% of the total feasible hydropower has been harnessed
so far. The run-off river hydropower projects across these regions are not only ceasing the
production in dry season, but also suffering from operational and maintenance challenges
inducing financial losses. The hydro turbines in these power plants are mostly imported from
foreign industries, which do not address the local problems. Turbine Testing Lab, which was
established inside the premises of Kathmandu University in 2011, envisions a long term goal of
manufacturing the turbines inside Nepal addressing the problems of sediment erosion, by
building competences in design and testing facilities within the country. The activities of the lab
within the course of 3 years have maintained the energy in terms of mobilizing the resources,
technology transfer and capacity enhancement through education and research.
This paper presents such past and present activities to reflect the lab endeavors in hydropower
development of the country merged with an academic excellence. This paper also proposes
several models for future prospects that include Foundation model for creating international
standards of turbine design, manufacture and testing, Cooperation model to develop a research
culture in industry while developing industrial motivation in academy and Business model for
recognizing a turbine manufacturing ecosystem in Nepal through entrepreneurial growth. The
models are complemented with a series of future activities captivating the perspectives of
national and international institutions, organizations and donors. The ideas presented in this
paper can be a good initiation of industrial growth by bridging the gap between academicians
and professionals, while maintaining sustainability of the resources.
Keywords: Hydropower, Nepal, Turbine Testing Lab, Models, Sustainability
1. Introduction
With a population of 30 million and GDP per capita of US$703 in FY 2012/2013, Nepal is
passing through a prolonged political transition for the last two decades[1]. In terms of Human
Development Index, Nepal is ranked 157th out of 187 countries, even though the proportion of
people living under the poverty line was halved in only seven years[2]. Most of the population is
deriving their livelihood from agriculture, which has contributed to GDP by about one third.
Tourism is a growing industry and in recent years, foreign employment has also emerged as the
largest component of services sector. According to World Bank, poor reliability and access to
power are the most serious infrastructure that is causing hurdle in economic growth[1].
Ironically, Nepal is among the richest country in water resources, with one of the highest per
capita hydropower potentials in the world. The estimated power potential in Nepal is about
83,000 MW and total economically feasible hydro power potential is about 42,000 MW, which

was assessed in 1966 from a PhD research work of Dr. Hari Man Shrestha in former USSR[3].
Despite this enormous opportunity, Nepal has not been able to harness even 2% of the total
potential power. Any efforts to reduce the 16-hour load-shedding gap in the dry season have
proved barely successful. The total peak demand in 2013 was recorded to be 1094.6 MW and is
growing at the rate of nearly 10% every year. Whereas, the total supply was only 719.6 MW, out
of which 443 MW was generated by NEA, 177.1 MW was produced by independent power
producers and the remaining 102.5 MW was imported. Getting access to electricity has even
been a major problem, with only one third of the population living in homes connected to
electricity[1].
Most of the plants in Nepal are run-of-river type hydropower projects. A major obstacle of
current electricity crisis in the country during dry season is the outcome of such mode of
electricity generation. There has been some efforts paid in developing more of reservoir type
projects, with initiations made from 140 MW Upper Seti (Tanahun), 600 MW BudhiGandaki and
530 MW DudhKoshi Storage Development Projects[3]. Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) is
also emphasizing the participation of private sector in the hydropower development by raising
the posted power purchase rate. However, developing a hydropower requires a large investment
and has longer gestation period compared to other power production. Besides, the import of
technologies and manpower from abroad folds the cost by numerous times. The risks and
uncertainty factors create economical barrier for further development. Although the history of
hydro power generation in Nepal dates back to 104 years at Pharping Hydro Power with capacity
of 500 kW, there has not been any steep growth of power production due to the trend of
dependency on foreign resources and companies. Similarly, the turbine manufacturing in Nepal
started 40 years ago, with the establishment of BalajuYantraShala under the aid of Swiss
Government. The manufacturing kicked off with pico size propeller turbines, but since this date,
the production trend has neither been modified nor the production size has increased remarkably.
There are several socio-economic and political challenges in Nepal, which limits the construction
of power plants. Besides, it faces an inevitable problem of maintenance and operation due to
sediment erosion in the run-off-river power plants. Hence, the economic growth of Nepal is
trapped between inadequate energy supply from hydropower on one hand and technical
challenges in the existing plants on the other. With the increase in independent power producers
and local manufacturers, there is increasing demand for turbine quality, performance and
reliability. It was realized that competences to exploit water resources for hydropower not only
depends on financing, design and management of projects, but also on knowledge generation and
local adaptability of technology[4]. Although Nepalese companies are capable of designing,
manufacturing and installing micro hydro systems, the lack of performance data about the
manufactured turbines is undermining the confidence in local products. Due to that reason,
turbines or the design of the turbines are usually imported, which do not take into account the
local problems such as erosion.
With these challenges roaming around, Kathmandu University together with experts in Norway
felt the need of building turbine testing laboratory for supporting Nepalese industries by
certifying the locally manufactured turbines, building competence and knowledge within the
hydropower sector in Nepal through teaching-learning facility and motivating research for the
development of very efficient hydro-turbines that can withstand any operating conditions. The
idea of building a turbine testing facility was conceived back in 1997 with the aim to support
hydropower development in the country. In 2009, an agreement was signed between KU and

NORAD regarding financial support for construction of TTL. A total sum of 1.3 million US$
was needed for the construction of the lab, of which NORAD funded 60%, Nepalese industries
and institutes supported this endeavor and contributed 20%, whereas remaining 20% was
contributed by KU itself. The lab was designed by faculties of KU with support from Norwegian
University of Science and Technology (NTNU). NTNU has a similar lab called Waterpower
Laboratory, which was established in 1917 and was refurbished and modernized in 2001. Hence,
their guidance from the initial design phase of TTL was found to be very useful.
After the inauguration on November 10, 2011, TTL has been able to carry out several activities
within the lab to maintain the dynamicity at high exhilaration. In the course of time, TTL has
perceived an ambitious target of becoming a center of excellence for turbine design,
manufacturing and testing facilities in Nepal. This paper presents the past and ongoing activities
conducted by the lab together with future endeavors to achieve this long term goal. There are
various aspects from which the current situation can be observed, this includes development of
the lab capacity, motivation of applied research for bridging the gap between industry and
university and improving the socio-economic status of the people through employment
opportunities. This paper describes each of these individual aspects in the form of three models
that TTL is implementing. Some of the fields described in these models are completed, whereas
some of the fields are in the stage of development.
2. Turbine Testing Lab Facilities and Activities
Located at the foothill of Kathmandu University at Dhulikhel, Nepal, the lab operates within the
academic environment of the university and collaborates with the industries and private sectors
to address technical and societal aspects of hydropower development and turbine-related
issues.TTL is the only lab in the world which can perform tests with 30 m natural head. The
location and topography of KU has provided the opportunity to place an upper reservoir so as to
create a 30 m natural head. The lab has two centrifugal pumps each of 250 kW with variable
frequency drive (VFD) for each pump. Each pump canproduce maximum flow of 0.25 m3/s and
maximum head of 75 m. The pumps can be connected in series and parallel combination
producing a maximum head of 150 m and maximum flow of 0.5 m3/s respectively. TTL has the
capacity to perform prototype test up to 300 kW turbines and perform model test for larger
turbines. The lab has provision to have four test rigs at a time, along with notches and water
volume measurement arrangements for calibration of measuring instruments. Over past few
years, the lab has developed and enhanced the competences in performing computational
simulations to strengthen the research capacity. It has also acquired state-of-art technologies such
as Rapid Prototyping Machine, a 3D printer to produce complicated turbine component models
with high accuracy, Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) setup to study the flow phenomena in
turbines, metallurgy microscopes for studying the turbine materials and sediment particles,
Rotating Disc Apparatus (RDA) to carry out erosion testing and Borescope as a non-destructive
testing for investigating defects or imperfections in inner parts of turbine. Following are some of
the achievements of TTL since its establishment.
a. Development of turbines with improved erosion performance
The conventional Francis turbines in the context of Nepal are not performing satisfactorily in
erosive environment. Several research works have been carried out in KU and TTL, most of
them in collaboration with NTNU to reduce the erosion in turbine parts by improving the design.

It has been computationally tested that the optimization of hydraulic design of blade profile alone
can reduce sediment erosion in Francis runners up to 30%[6]. TTL has also designed and
developed a 92 kW Francis model of Jhimruk HP (4 MW), with the conventional and optimized
runners to test in the lab. This turbine accounts as the first Francis turbine that was designed and
manufactured in Nepal, with the design of TTL and manufactured by one of the 27
manufacturers of Nepal (Nepal Hydro Electric (NHE) Pvt. Ltd.). TTL was funded by
RenewableNepal program in a project from 2010-2013, entitled Development of Francis
turbines with new Design philosophy addressing the problems of sediment erosion for a
sustainable hydropower development in Nepal, in the course of which, these achievements were
made. Another project was funded by NORAD from 2012-2013, in parallel to the above project,
entitled Feasibility study for turbine manufacturing and testing facility in Nepal by identifying
the erosion potential of sediments in major basins of Nepal.

a)

b)

c)

Figure 1: a) Design of Francis turbine runner blades from computational analysis[7]

b) Manufacturing of the 92 kW Francis turbine at NHE c) Installed test rig of the turbine at TTL
b. Research collaboration between industry and university
TTL gives preference to projects having industrial and/or university collaboration. As shown in
Figure 1 b), the project of Renewable Nepal conducted by TTL had NHE as the manufacturing
industrial partner. This project also had NTNU, Norway as the expert partner. In 2011-2013, TTL
hosted a MS by Research student funded by Himal Power Ltd. to carry out study of failure
analysis due to root cracks in Pelton turbines of Khimti HP. In 2014, TTL also assisted a PhD
student from University of Calgary, Canada to conduct experimental and numerical study on a 15
kW cross-flow turbine available at TTL. Every year, there is a research collaboration between
NTNU and KU, where students from NTNU spends some time at TTL to carry out studies which
are relevant to Nepal. Some of the students of KU are even funded by NTNU and KMOU (Korea
Maritime and Ocean University) for higher studies in their universities. Besides, TTL is also
supporting undergraduate students from Sikkim and Tribhuwan University, Nepal to carry out
different projects. In 2014, TTL has also carried out design works of a bifurcation with hydraulic
and mechanical integrity for DaraundiKhola HP project.

a)

b)

c)

Figure 2: a) MS by Research on failure analysis of Pelton runner for Khimti HP [8]

b) Design of IEC standard Francis and Pelton test rigs at TTL from Master students of NTNU
c) Design and computational analysis of a bifurcation for DaraundiKhola HP
c. Leading the research activities into next level
TTL has also been conducting several other research activities focusing on the sustainable and
renewable energy technology in the context of Nepal. One of such activities includes
identification of the technical feasibility and conditions of use of Reversible Pump Turbines
(RPT) in Nepal and designing such an RPT for a feasible site condition[7]. This was the second
project funded by Renewable Nepal program in 2013-2014. This project had Chilime HP as the
industrial partner and the site feasibility was also done in the premises of Chilime and
Bhotekoshi River. A local industry called D-Matrix Pvt. Ltd. was the manufacturing partner for
manufacturing the scale down model of the designed turbine, as a demonstration unit at TTL.
There have also been some other research activities done in the lab such as wind turbine rotor
design and analysis through computations and experiments, use of PIV techniques for fluid and
particle behavior in the turbine and advanced computational techniques, in order to build higher
competences in research and taking the research level of Nepalese institutions to next level.

a)

b)

c)

d)

Figure 3: a) RPT designed by TTL and manufactured in a local company

b) Wind turbine blade printed in the 3-D printer for testing purpose c) PIV in a Pelton Bucket
c) CFD analysis of a Pelton turbine conducted in a MS by Research work[9]
d. Contributions in uplifting the Micro Hydro Status of Nepal
Micro Hydro plants in Nepal are becoming increasingly popular as an energy source in rural

Nepal. There are more than 27 micro hydro turbine manufacturers and more than 2500 Micro
Hydro Projects (MHP) in the country. In future these micro hydro turbine projects and
manufacturers are expected to increase; and continue its contribution significantly for
electrifying Nepal. Thus, R&D to promote MHP in Nepal has been crucial.With a mission to
make renewable energy mainstream resource to rural areas of Nepal, AEPC is providing subsidy
to micro hydropower projects. Cross flow turbine is widely used in micro hydropower plants.
Although standard for Micro Hydro exists and is put into practice, it is rather simple. Hydraulic
efficiency is not measured, but is calculated from the empirical relation of generator. For a micro
hydropower plant, only the electrical output is of major concern. So to obtain design output at
lower turbine efficiency has led to oversizing of micro hydro turbines. Annually millions of
rupees are being wasted by the use of larger turbine than needed. Pertaining to the need of
standardizing micro hydro turbines and testing facilities for these turbines, AEPC has granted
fund for the project (2014-2015) of establishing micro hydro turbine test rigs at TTL so as to
uplift the status of micro hydro in Nepal. Testing standards and testing procedures relevant to
present context of Nepal will be developed in this project.
In course of completion of the project funded by AEPC,Korea Institute of Energy Technology
Evaluation and Planning (KETEP) has also paid a great interest in motivating the research
culture in micro hydro sector of Nepal. In 2015, KU in collaboration with KMOU (Korea
Maritime Ocean University) has received a fund for developing 5 kW and 20 kW cross flow
turbine in a feasible site of Nepal, with design optimization in regard to the erosion effect. The 3
year project will include a PhD enrollment and all the design, testing and analysis works will be
carried out in the lab, whereas the manufacturing will be done in Korea. It is also planned to
manufacture the turbines alternatively in Nepal so that the design competences in Nepal can be
enhanced.

a)

b)

c)

Figure 4: a) Test rig layout design b) Manufacturing at Krishna Grill c) Pelton turbine rig
installed at TTL
3. Models for enhancement of R&D activities of TTL
a. Foundation Model
Foundation includes the required facilities in the lab to be able to provide certifications to the
turbines with international standards. After the lab facilities are built with the financial support
from NORAD and the micro-hydro test rigs are developed, there is also a necessity to test the
larger turbines through scale-down models. The scaling down approach and scaling effects need
to be taken into account from IEC standards. Nepal including South Asian region lacks facilities
for model test of hydro turbines as per IEC guidelines. Hence, upgrading of existing turbine

testing laboratory involves enhancing the laboratory facility for design verification and model
test certification.The University aims in enhancing the capability of TTL to serve as a center for
sustainable development of hydropower in Nepal and in the region. The capacity of TTL will be
developed for research, design verification and model test certification to provide technical
solutions and intellectual support related to mechanical equipment of hydropower, focusing on
turbines.
The framework of the foundation model is explained in Figure 5. The goal of establishing a
Francis turbine IEC 60193 standard test rig at TTL has been put forward as a proposal to
Energize Nepal program, which is expected to start in early 2016. The outputs of the project are
indicated below:
1. IEC standard hydro turbine test rig installed and turbine performance testing procedure
established at TTL
2. 3 set of models of Francis runners are fabricated according to new design concept
concerning better sediment handling and tested in the IEC standard test rig
3. Development of competent human resources in the field of hydro turbines and electric
power engineering by involving 29 academic graduates (Master and PhD) in the research
activities in the field of turbine design and hydropower
4. Experience sharing from the acquired knowledge among the stakeholders of the field
through dissemination programs and publications
IEC standard Francis Test Rig established at Turbine Testing Lab will be an asset of hydropower
industry of Nepal. With the establishment of IEC rig it is equally important to develop
competence in model Francis turbine design, which will be acquired from the PhD and Masters
research works. The test rig will be useful for model testing of Francis runner, certification of the
turbines manufactured in Nepal in an internationally recognized standard and R&D works related
to Francis turbines. The test rig can also be useful to its neighboring country like Bhutan and
India since these countries have huge potential for hydropower and are developing several
hydropower projects. Successful completion of this project would enable TTL of designing
model runner and also doing its performance measurement. Besides, TTL will also be
responsible for collaboration with the necessary government and private sector organizations,
national and international research institutions, turbine manufacturing industries, hydropower
companies/projects for successful execution of this project and to meet its long-term objectives.

Figure 5: Foundation Model

b. Cooperation model
The higher education provided in Universities and the challenges of industries are highly interdependent. The education should impose research activities which could address the problems of
local industries. One of the objectives of the lab is to stimulate collaborative research with
national and international Universities and industries. This has been done so far by conducting
some research and student projects initiated by industry. The Renewable-Nepal program at KU
[10]was initiated in 2009 with the purpose of building applied research capacity at Nepalese
Universities and research institutions that can serve Nepalese energy industry in developing high
quality products. TTL has so far, hosted 2 out of 21 projects that are funded by this program
which were discussed above. In both the projects, TTL has maintained a close collaboration with
Nepalese industries, NHE and D-Matrix Engineering Pvt. Ltd. for manufacturing the turbines
designed as an outcome of systematic research in the context of Nepalese scenario. In the first
project, TTL also collaborated with NTNU for guiding an MS by Research student throughout
the project.
Similarly, in the current project funded by AEPC, TTL has partnered with Krishna Grill Pvt. Ltd.
to build the test rigs in the lab. The recently funded project of KETEP will have KMOU as the
University partner from Korea and a Korean industry, Donggu Infra Co. TTL has been able to
build a close relation with Nepal Micro Hydro Development Association (NMHDA).In some of
the projects, TTL also seeks direct or indirect benefit from industries so as to increase the
motivation factor for cooperation. The project of MS by Research funded by Himal Power
Limited to study the failure due to root cracks in Pelton runner is one of the prominent example,
where the maintenance challenge faced by the hydropower companies are directly addressed.
TTL was also involved in a hydraulic and mechanical design work of bifurcation for Nirvana
Tech. Pvt. Ltd. for DaraundiKhola HP project. Similarly, it is also currently assisting NHE for
making a design template of Kaligandaki HP runners and investigating the performance through

computational simulations.
Even with all these efforts, it has been observed that there is a definite mismatch in the
perspectives of Universities and industries. The research outcomes, in a way do not lie under the
low-hanging-fruit of industries, for they always seek for immediate and reliable results. A
cooperation model has been proposed in Figure 6, which presents an idea of how the research
culture should be developed in the industries, while emphasizing on industrial
applications/interests in the research performed at TTL. The knowledge sharing is a give and
take process, which can be stimulated through regular seminars and workshops. The research
could strengthen the quality of education, but to benefit the industries, the research outcome
should be able to provoke the industrial growth in a short time. The collaboration can also be in
the form of student projects and internships for undergraduate and graduate level students.

Figure 6: Cooperation model

c. Business model
The ultimate goal of TTL and KU is to raise the socio-economic standard of the country. This
goal is directly related with the societal benefits, including the sufficient supply of electricity and
employment opportunities. In 2014, KU launched a Business Incubation Center (BIC) as a semiautonomous body under KU, which provides a platform for innovators and experts from
academia, the private, technical and development sectors, to work together to transform
innovative ideas from Nepali citizens across the world into socially-conscious successful
businesses. In the long run, TTL has also incepted a vision to commercialize the research
outcomes in the form of a company. With the target of developing reliable turbines inside Nepal
for all levels (small, medium and large), Turbine Design Services (TDS) has been conceived as a
spin-off company of TTL under the framework of BIC. The primary goal of TDS is to impart
knowledge based service that includes design and blue prints, testing and best practices needed
for project specific activities. TDS will collaborate with researchers/departments/research labs
within the University and with manufacturing companies and vendors to deliver a complete
solution for hydropower clients.
TDS is conceived as an autonomous privately run knowledge based industry, to ensure effective
transfer of know-how and technology (similar to a mini SINTEF or a specialized TTO at
NTNU, Norway), while ensuring that all legal requirements are met, including any concerns

related to potential Conflict-Of-Interest and Conflict-Of-Commitment in the future. For that

reason, TDS will operate at arms length from KU with transparent rules and procedures. The
purpose of this approach is to leverage the core competences of KU and the individual
researchers towards innovation and sustainable development in Nepal, without jeopardizing the
integrity of the University and the academics. TDS will make this knowledge base available on
commercial terms to the hydroelectric power industry, in the form of consulting support,
customized turbine design and/or licenses to commercially use its technology.
In an ecosystem development for turbine manufacturing in Nepal, the role of TDS is described in
different spectrum of hydropower development. Initially in the sector of micro-hydropower
projects, TDS will provide an automated service where turbine manufacturers can obtain
recommendations and blue-prints for a standard turbine design based on input parameters. In the
case of larger power plants, TDS will provide a consultant-type of professional services,
providing optimized turbine designs that meet the special needs of individual flows in sedimentrich environments.
KU has also recently (2014) established a Technical Training Center (TTC) with the financial aid
from KOICA-Korea, where the manufacturing capacities are built. Synergic effects of TTL, TTC
and TDS under the framework of BIC will be the strongest element to develop and implement
technical knowhow needed for turbine manufacturing.

Figure 7: Business model

4. Conclusion
The national and foreign investment in the sector of hydropower in Asia is likely to grow in near
future. However, it is still a topic of debate when a sustainability of the hydropower development
is raised as an inevitable issue. The hydropower sector of Nepal lacks collaboration between
industries and academic institutions. There needs to be such learning environment, where
students and researchers can address the growing problems of hydropower and industries need to
have the research motivation. In order to overcome this gap between the two areas, Turbine
Testing Lab was established under Kathmandu University, which has created and seized
numerous opportunities to have academic and industrial cooperation. The second criterion is to
have the complete foundation inside the lab, so that the testing can be done in full phase and
certification can be provided with internationally recognized standards. The third criterion is to
create societal benefits by commercializing the services and bringing employment opportunities.
In this paper, three models have been presented which are needed to enhance the R&D activities
in the lab. With an aim of becoming a center of excellence for turbine design, manufacturing and
testing facilities in Nepal, TTL has been implementing these models in one way or other, in its
past, present and future activities.

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