Upper Tamor A

Upper Tamor A Hydropower Project

Background

Upper Tamor A Hydropower Project is a run of the river hydropower project with the installed capacity of 60 MW. Situated in Taplejung district, the project is a high head project with annual generation of 338.822 GWh. The progress of the project can be summarised in the table below.

SNDescriptionStatusRemarks
1.Feasibility StudyOngoing 
2.Power Purchase AgreementOngoing 
3.Environment Impact AssessmentOngoing 

Salient Features

1.0General
 Source River: Tamor River
 Rural Municipality: Phaktanglung
 District: Taplejung
 Zone: Mechi
 Development Region: Eastern
 Province no.: One
 Toposheet no.: 2787 07, 2787 08
 Type of Scheme: Run-of-River
 Latitude: 27039’10” N to 27042’20” N
 Longitude: 87044’35” E to 87048’09” E
 Gross Head: 968 m
 Net Head: 943.72 m
 Design Discharge (Q41): 7.50 m3/s
 Installed Capacity: 60 MW
 Net Annual Generation: 338.822 GWh
   
2.0Hydrology & Meteorology
 Catchment Area at Intake: 167 km2
 1 in 100 years Design Flood: 464 m3/s
 Mean Annual Discharge: 11.82 m3/s
 Riparian Release: 0.22 m3/s
  
3.0Diversion Weir
 Type: Concrete Ogee Shaped Gravity Weir
 Crest Level: E.L 3594.00 masl
  
4.0Others
 Headrace Tunnel and Culvert length: 6.64 km
 Penstock Pipe length: 2.33 km
 Penstock Diameter: 1.6 m
 Surface Pipe Length: 560 m
 4 Pressure Tunnel Length: 1077.2 m
 3 Vertical Shaft Length: 761.06 m
 Voltage Level: 11 kV/132kV
 Dry energy: 100.307 GWh
 Wet Energy: 233.515 GWh
 Adit Length: 250 m
 Surge Shaft: 37 m high
 Surge Shaft Dia: 5 m
 Surge Shaft Type: Circular, non spilling
 Powerhouse Type: Surface
 Plan Dimension: 16 m wide X 44 m Long
 Turbine Axis Level: 2626.00 masl
 No of Unit: 3 Nos. X 20 MW
 Turbine Type: Vertical Axis Pelton Turbine

Other Information

  • The project capacity is 60 MW.
  • Upper Tamor A Hydropower Project lies in the Eastern Part and near the China Border
  • Access Track from China has already arrived at Olangchungola
  • The Government has priority to connect Taplejung with China
  • Access Road will reach the project area in near future
  • Tamor has very dependable flow, about 30% of the catchment is snow covered
  • Its high head project, yet structures are simple to be laid
  • The outlet part where most important underground structures are, will be good rock condition

Conclusion

  • Recent field visit for the geological study of the project area has shown the overall geological condition of the project suitable for the project
  • Surface penstock and powerhouse option were investigated and the result shows that penstock as well as powerhouse can be constructed on surface which will result in significant saving of the cost.
  • A new powerhouse location was identified which will increase the head by 100 m making the project’s gross head above 1000 m. This will increase the capacity of the project.
  • High head projects are comparatively cheaper than the low head project. Initial study shows that the project cost per mw is around 17 crores per mw. Despite being the project in this location the cost is significantly lower.53