| Author | Mandal, Paras |
| Call Number | AIT Thesis no. ET-02-8 |
| Subject(s) | Water-power--Nepal--Economic aspects
|
| Note | A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of
Engineering. School of Environment, Resources and Development |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Series Statement | Thesis ; no. ET-02-8 |
| Abstract | Hydro resources are provided by nature and the exploitation of such resources can generate
significant economic rent. Nepal is well endowed with enormous hydropower resources
and hydropower of Nepal has the export opportunity as well as the opportunity in domestic
consumption. The opportunity cost of hydroelectricity of Nepal is thus divided into two
categories based on its market and relative scarcity. It has been realized for long time that
hydropower is the only strategic resource for Nepal whose judicious exploitation could
help its growth and sustainable development. Hence, hydro rent attached to these resources
is the major subject of interest.
The methodology of this study to evaluate the rent of hydropower uses the concept of
hydro rent as a measure of cost savings achievable by the use of hydro resources over the
least cost alternatives. Two-generation expansion plans i.e., one with and the other without
the selected hydro resource option have been determined. The difference of the total costs
of these two would give the rent of the selected hydro resource. The WASP-N
optimization software is used to determine minimum system cost.
In case of export demand, hydro rents of two Nepalese candidate hydropower projects (i.e.
Arun-ill and West Seti) were evaluated under mixed hydro-thermal system. Whereas in the
case of domestic demand, hydro rent of Arun-ill hydro power project was evaluated under
both mixed hydro-thermal system and hydro-only system.
Cases to meet only the domestic demand of Nepal, the value of hydro rent in the hydroonly system is found to be 1.66 USc/kWh, which is higher than that in the case of mixed
hydro-thermal system (0.82 USc/kWh). In the export market, the value of hydro rent of
Arun-ill hydro power project is found to be 1.34 USc/kWh, which is higher than that of
West Seti hydro power project (USc 1.29/kWh).
Many factors influence the value of hydro rent as hydro rent is found to be site specific.
The value of hydro rent varies with respect to discount rate, fuel cost, capital cost, load
growth etc. It is found that with the increase in load, the value of hydro rent is found to be
increasing. But the hydro rent does not show a clear trend with the values of discount rate,
fuel cost and capital cost. |
| Year | 2002 |
| Corresponding Series Added Entry | Asian Institute of Technology. Thesis ; no. ET-02-8 |
| Type | Thesis |
| School | School of Environment, Resources, and Development (SERD) |
| Department | Department of Energy and Climate Change (Former title: Department of Energy, Environment, and Climate Change (DEECC)) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Energy Technology (ET) |
| Chairperson(s) | Shrestha, Ram M. |
| Examination Committee(s) | Bhattacharyya, S. C. ;Bhattacharya, S.C. ;Weerakom Ongsakul |
| Scholarship Donor(s) | Asian Development Bank/Government of Japan |
| Degree | Thesis (M.Eng.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2002 |