Simigoan is a remote community with no road access — it takes around 2 hours of trekking up hill to reach this village, which is on the trekking route to Gaurishankar mountain in the Nepal Himalayas. This project was a partnership between Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower Limited and Peak Power to establish another power supply (solar and battery) and extend the transmission lines.
This was a very challenging project that required coordination of materials delivery which was hand-carried over several months by the local village people from the access road to the final installation location. It was unbelievable to see the effort the local people put in humping kilometers of transmission wire, 6-meter poles, cabling, inverters, batteries, tools, solar modules and installation materials.
The system was synchronized to the existing micro-hydro system, which was extremely challenging given the condition of the turbine and the voltage controller, but we did manage to get everything to sync up. We also installed extensive grounding systems, direct strike lightning protection and surge protection as the site is prone to lightning strikes.
This project was really enjoyable — we all started to naturally improve our health and fitness living away from the city, eating the local organic food, drinking the pure water and breathing the clean air. This village is really amazing.