KATHMANDU: Liberty Energy Company is going to develop the 24.6 Mw Badigad Khola Hydroelectric Project in the Badigard river that flows through Malika and Musikot Rural Municipalities in Baglung District of Gandaki Province. The developer company has applied to the Department of Energy Development (DoED) for a power generation licence. The department said that the process of issuing a generation licence in the name of the company has reached the final stage.
The department has issued a 35-day notice to grant a generation licence to the company as per the project’s feasibility study report, Initial Environmental Examination (IEE), and has sought suggestions from relevant stakeholders. The Run-of-river project’s design discharge (flow) will be 18.79 cubic metres per second and the total gross head will be 155 metres. The annual generation of electricity from the project will be 147.73 Gwh. The main physical structure of the project will be on the left side of the Badigad river. A dam with a length of 54.75 metres will be constructed to bring the river water to the power plant that consists of three Francis turbines with a capacity of 8.26 megawatts each.
The project aims to generate electricity by June 2025. The electricity produced by the project will be connected to Gulmi’s Bastu substation. This company has built a 25 Mw upper Dordi ‘A’ hydroelectric project which is coming into operation soon.