How Nepal Built a 1984 Power Plant Using a 1967 Plant's Water — Then Lost Both in One Morning

Nepal has a power plant with no river of its own: Devighat, opened in 1984, runs on the water that has already been through the seven machines of the Trishuli plant above it, and drops it another forty and a half metres. The upper plant has been running since 1967, the lower one since 1984, and for forty-two years that arrangement wasted nothing — it also meant both sat on one line of falling water, along with more than thirty projects in the same river basin. On the morning of 26 August 2026 a mass of ice and rock came off a high face at the top of that valley — an ice and rock avalanche is the leading hypothesis, not a confirmed cause — and it went down the line through intake, settling basin, headrace, surge shaft, penstock and machine hall, because each plant's outflow is the next plant's supply. Nepal's national utility counted thirteen damaged projects in that basin in its 1 September list: a station running since 1967, one running since 1984, and one running less than seven years all stopped on the same morning. On 13 September the transmission line to India was reversed, and the same wires that had carried Nepali power out began carrying 654 megawatts in, eighteen hours a day — for the other six hours, the valley is on its own. #Trishuli #Nepal #Hydropower #Engineering #Infrastructure #Documentary DISCLAIMER ____________________________________ This is not engineering advice. Everything here is for informational and entertainment purposes only. Contact an engineer licensed to practice in your area if you need professional advice or services. All non-licensed clips used for fair use commentary, criticism, and educational purposes.