Nepal Energy Wiki
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Layer: Top-10 Capacity Projects

Page status
Working page
Updated
2026-05-13

Open in the interactive explorer and map

Explorer label: Top 10 largest
Layer group: Hydropower layers
Feature count: 10

Largest hydropower projects in the display set, useful for separating headline MW from deliverable system value.

Summary

This layer highlights the ten largest hydropower projects in the explorer display set by installed capacity. It is a capacity-rank comparator for testing headline MW against storage, seasonality, transmission, and delivery context.

What It Represents

This layer highlights the ten largest hydropower projects in the display set by installed capacity. It is intentionally blunt: it makes the headline-MW story visible so the rest of the wiki can test whether capacity alone explains value.

The layer is a comparator, not a recommendation list. It should be read beside Layer: Storage Shortlist, Layer: Priority Watchlist, basin seasonality, and transmission layers. Large MW can be valuable, but only if the project can produce at the right time, evacuate power through the grid, manage financing and construction risk, and clear domestic or cross-border commercial constraints.

Included Projects

Rank Project MW River District Status Promoter
1 Mugu Karnali Storage HEP 1,902 Karnali Bajura Survey Vidhyut Utpadan Company Limited
2 Arun 3 900 Arun Sankhuwasabha Survey Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited
3 Upper Karnali 900 Karnali Surkhet Survey GMR, Upper Karnali Hydropower Limited
4 Uttarganga Storage Hydropower Project 828 Uttar Ganga Baglung Survey Nepal Electricity Authority
5 Betan Karnali HP 688 Karnali Achham Survey Betan Karnali Sanchayakarta Hydropower Company Ltd
6 Tamakoshi 3 650 Tama Koshi Dolakha Survey TBI Holding Co. Ltd.
7 Upper Tamakoshi HPP 456 Tama Koshi Dolakha Generation Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower Limited
8 Kimathanka Arun HEP 450 Arun Sankhuwasabha Survey Vidhyut Utpadan Company Limited
9 Bheri-1 HEP 440 Bheri Rukum West Survey Gezhouba Group Power Investment Nepal Pvt. Ltd.
10 Phukot Karnali 426 Karnali Kalikot Survey Vidhyut Utpadan Company Limited

The list is dominated by Karnali, Arun/Koshi, and Tama Koshi projects. That matters because the biggest capacity markers are not evenly distributed across Nepal; they cluster in remote or corridor-dependent basins where transmission, access, financing, and export arrangements often decide whether MW becomes useful energy.

How To Read It

Use it to compare project scale, basin location, license status, and promoter context. Then cross-check every marker against:

Cross-Check Why It Matters
Storage shortlist Shows whether the project can help the dry-season deficit or mainly adds wet-season energy.
Basin seasonality Reveals whether the basin's hydrology reinforces the seasonal mismatch.
Transmission corridors Tests whether the project has a credible route to load centers or export gateways.
Cross-border links and gateways Matters for projects whose economics depend on selling surplus power outside Nepal.
Priority watchlist Shows whether the project is analytically important beyond size alone.

The top-10 layer is especially useful for challenging simple capacity narratives. For example, Mugu Karnali is by far the largest marker, but its strategic meaning is different from Upper Tamakoshi, which is already in the generation-stage stack, or Tanahu, which is smaller but more important to near-term storage. Big capacity is the beginning of the question, not the answer.

The key fields are:

Field How To Use It
rank Capacity rank within this display set.
Capacity (capacity_mw) Installed capacity used for ranking.
Status (license_type) Indicates whether the marker is survey-stage or generation-stage.
promoter Helps connect the project to public, private, foreign, or mixed delivery structures.
Location source (location_basis) Explains how the map point was anchored.
precision_label Distinguishes stronger river-aligned references from lower-confidence registry references.

Coverage / Method

The layer covers 10 project features in top_capacity_project_annotations.geojson. Projects are ranked by installed capacity within the display set, with fields for rank, capacity, river, district, status, promoter, location basis, and precision label.

Caveats

Capacity rank is a blunt lens. It can overvalue wet-season energy, ignore grid bottlenecks, and hide financing, resettlement, environmental, construction, and geopolitical risk. The layer is useful precisely because it exposes the temptation to equate MW with value.

Most records in this layer are survey-stage. A survey-stage 900 MW marker is not equivalent to an operating 900 MW plant, and a large marker does not imply near-term delivery. Marker precision also varies. Bheri-1 is explicitly marked as a low-confidence registry reference, while Mugu Karnali and Phukot Karnali use document-backed project-area centers or river-aligned references.

Linked Data

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