A busy end in Nepal.......and some rain

The next week starts with the arrival of Neil Jeffery (the CEO of renewable world) and Louis Fitzgerald (a member of the board of trustees for Renewable World).  I had met Neil before in Brighton but had never met Louis.  Although, as Ireland is a relatively small place and since Louis was one of the founding members of Airtricity I had known of him.  Both Neil and Louis were extremely busy as Nick had arranged a gruelling schedule of meetings with partners etc.  However, on Thursday evening we all went out for dinner to an Indian restaurant just across the Bagmati river from Patan.   The food was excellent and there was talk about going on for a last drink but I reluctantly passed.  I think it was a wise decision though as Nick had asked me to give a presentation on the work I’ve been carrying out to date while the guys were over visiting.  The next day, I give two presentations, one on the Solar MUS installations and a second on a new project where I’m looking at integrating data monitoring onto existing and new projects.  It is vital that information is recorded so as to ensure they are operating efficiently among other things.   

During the week Nick had been invited to two days of round table discussions at the World Bank.  A number of well established companies from the Renewable Sector in India had been invited to attend with the hope of knowledge transfer between Indian and Nepali companies.  Nick had kindly asked me to come along as would be a good learning and networking experience.  The first day was centred around solar business models which is of great interest to Renewable World.  It was a good opportunity to meet with companies doing the same thing in India that Renewable World is doing in Nepal, albeit on a much grander scale.  The economies of scale on projects in India are just vast, but sometimes one forgets that there are 26 million people living here in Nepal, sandwiched between the two giant economies of China and India.  If the success of the mobile phone market here in Nepal has taught us anything is that technology business models can work extremely well here and hopefully it is only a matter of time before access to electricity follows suit. 

There are varying reports as to the level of access to electricity for the population of Nepal with some sources putting it at just 15% where as others putting it closer to 40%.  One thing is for sure, reliable access to electricity is currently not possible.  Load shedding is an electricity management technique that is used to control power flows on a network.  As there is insufficient supply to meet demand, what does exist needs to be shared around the population.  In western countries this is a last resort in managing an electricity network and therefore load shedding only happens in extreme cases.  However, in Nepal it happens on a daily basis and for between 8-10 hours a day.

At the weekend we celebrate New Years Eve again, this time in Nepal with the ending of 2069 and the start of 2070.  I always thought Nepal was a bit ahead of its time anyway but maybe not 57 years!  One thing I’ll say is that Nepal certainly knows how to celebrate in style.  It’s a country of colourful festivals and they are all so inclusive of different religious views and ethnicity.  There’s one about every two weeks and each one seems to be better than the last.  Durber square in Kathmandu had a large stage erected for New Years Eve.  Bands such as Kutumba, who are a gifted traditional instrumental band played.. google them they are good!  Their instruments are similar to what you would expect from a traditional Irish band or most western bands for that matter, but adapted to the local culture.  However, I’m quite sure these instruments came from the east first before we adopted them and include violins, flutes, guitars and drums.

I’ve also gone for a couple of cycles recently around Kathamndu valley at the weekends which have been good and challenging at the same time.  I went on one where it did not stop raining for the entire trip which was quite unusual as I can count the number of times I’ve seen rain over here on one hand.  It was quite fitting though as it was myself and a friend from Scotland so the rain was no match for us!  Although I think everyone else thought we were mad!  That time we headed south to Godawari park.  The other time I went cycling north up to Chivapuri park, which was quite a different experience as I was quite ill at the time from something I had picked up swimming.  I had heard about a monastery that was supposed to be very peaceful and tranquil looking out over Kathmandu valley.  I figured if I managed to get up to the monastery and still felt unwell they would look after me anyway! I’ve also managed to get away rafting on the Bhote Koshi river for a weekend, staying up again near the Tibetan border which was great fun!

Another project that I hope to get time to work on involves a micro-hydro site about two day’s drive from Kathmandu.  The project supplies electricity for water pumping as well as power to the local community.  The project implementer, the Unica Foundation, had called in to talk to Nick on other matters and mentioned that they were having some electrical problems, mainly to do with fluctuating voltage levels at the generator.  This is a common problem with micro-hydro projects as the power source is not constant and therefore requires control equipment to regulate the supply of electricity at a constant frequency.  I’m hoping to help them out on this project although sadly I’m starting to realise that my time here in Nepal is finite and that I have other priorities that I need to finish off before I leave. 

I end the week by taking another trip to Kavre. This time, however, I’m not going to monitor the performance of the water pumping system although I will check that it is still functioning correctly.  I travel with iDE who again have kindly provided transport and a driver.  I bring a colleague from Real Time Solutions (RTS) who are going to help me evaluate the site for data monitoring.   Data monitoring is key and it is one area that I have struggled to understand why they don’t collect more data here in Nepal.  Even basic infrastructural data such as that recorded for the purposes of weather forecasting at airports etc is hard to come by.  Hopefully, this project along with the wind mapping project with Wind Power Nepal should help change this. I also get the chance to speak with the community and see how the Solar MUS has been performing lately in Kavre.  One of the community members informs me that he managed to sell 70kg of vegetables for Rs 5,000 (about $50) which would not have been possible without the solar water pumping.  As you can imagine they are delighted with the system and are hoping to save up to afford a new system at some point in the future.  That made me feel happy and I report back to the office as to the success the project is having in the community.

All Fintan's photos are available on our facebook page.