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Current Research in Hydropower Technologies (CRHT IX) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 1266 (2019) 012007 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1266/1/012007

Opportunities and Challenges of introducing Francis Turbine

in Nepalese Micro Hydropower Projects

A. Ghimire1, D. R. Dahal1, N. Pokharel1, S. Chitrakar1, B. S. Thapa1*, B.

Thapa1
1
Turbine Testing Lab, Kathmandu University
*Corresponding author ([email protected])

Abstract. Despite the initiation of the master plan, envisioned by the government of Nepal,
complete electrification of rural Nepal still seems over ambitious for quite a long time. Thus
Micro Hydropower Plants (MHP) can still be very effective for rural electrification. Decades of
manufacturing of same type turbines have saturated the turbine manufacturing industries of
Nepal, which demands for some new innovations and that could be the introduction of Francis
turbine in Nepalese MHP. It’s undeniable that there are umpteen opportunities for the turbine
manufacturers to manufacture and install the Francis turbines in Nepalese MHP. The feasibility
studies performed by different institutions and the government policy strengthen the claim. In
addition to that, data received from, NMHDA and a local turbine manufacturing industry
suggest that there are abundant sites suitable for installation of Francis turbine. This paper
illustrates the need of introducing the Francis turbine in Nepalese MHP and discusses about the
opportunities available for the turbine manufacturers to enter into the market of Francis
turbines for micro hydro and subsequently for larger hydropower projects in the near future.
The challenges associated with the introduction of Francis turbine in MHP are highlighted.

Keywords: Micro Hydropower, Francis Turbines, Nepal, opportunities, challenges.

1. Introduction
Energy plays a vital role in the development of a country. Each country should find a balance between
the demand and supply of energy based on the resources available [1]. R. Sharma and R. Awal[2]
explain that increased awareness of the countries about their carbon footprint has motivated them to
develop and promote sustainable and environmentally friendly resources. While the world is busy
finding sustainable resources for energy production, Nepal still relies on traditional sources of energy;
firewood, agricultural residue, and dry dung, for 69% of energy consumed [3]. With around 83,280
MW of potential concentrated in the river courses, Nepal can sustainably fulfil the energy demand for
the foreseeable future, given that the available potential is exploited properly [4]. According to the
annual report published by Nepal Electricity Authority, only 1,016MW electricity is being produced at
present; which is less than 2.5% of the technically feasible 43,442MW [4,5]. The report also shows
that, 1079.242MW more electricity would have been produced, had the projects under construction
been finished as planned [5].

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Current Research in Hydropower Technologies (CRHT IX) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 1266 (2019) 012007 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1266/1/012007

Integrated National Power System (INPS) is required to evacuate the power generated at the
hydropower stations to the consumers. At present, the construction rate of high voltage transmission
line, left out for Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), is not on par with the construction rate of the
hydropower projects. Thus, Shrestha claims that the power purchases above 20% of the planned
generation of electricity would bankrupt NEA [6]. The Government of Nepal; Ministry of Energy,
Water Resources and Irrigation has an ambitious Master Plan in action, planned based on the
forecasted data on electricity generation and load scenario of the year 2040, for the development of
Transmission system in Nepal. The estimated cost for the execution of the Master Plan, by the year
2035, is 6.07 billion USD, which is almost half of the total budget of the country for the year
2018/19[7]. Successful completion of the master plan would certainly eradicate the problem of
electricity in most parts of the country, but it is unable to cover some of the regions in the northern part
of the country, where extension of grid is financially and technically unfeasible. Even if the master
plan were to facilitate the electrification of those areas in the long term, the population would still
require a source of electricity until they were connected to the grid. The answer to the problem can be
Micro Hydro; even for the long term in some regions [8].

Turbine manufacturing, for micro hydro, started almost 6 decades ago when, Balaju Yantra Shala Pvt.
Ltd. (BYS) was established in 1960, manufactured and installed a 5kW propeller turbine for the first
MHP of Nepal in 1962. Kathmandu Metal Industries Pvt. Ltd. (KMI), Nepal Yantra Shala Energy
(NYSE), Nepal Hydro & Electric Pvt. Ltd. (NHE), Nepal Machine and Steel Structure (NMSS) and
Thapa Engineering Industries Pvt. Ltd. (TEI) followed and excelled at manufacturing turbines in
Nepal. They even started manufacturing and providing installation and maintenance services to foreign
clients [8]. The success story of Micro Hydro in Nepal is often taken as an example throughout the
world for sustainable development of developing countries, especially rural areas [9]. Swiss and
German aid programs were crucial in the development of the manufacturing technology in Nepal. The
participation of the private manufacturing companies was facilitated by publicizing the simplified
designs of Cross flow and Pelton turbines [10]. The designs were exploited and a substantial number
of turbines were manufactured for power plants within Nepal and beyond. Decades of manufacturing
of the same types of turbines has saturated the turbine market; some of the manufacturers wish to
expand their market by manufacturing Francis Turbines, but lack the knowledge and competence to
design and manufacture it. Manufacturing Francis turbine could be an opportunity for Nepalese
manufacturers to enter into the larger turbine market [9]. This paper describes the need of introducing
Francis turbine; manufactured in Nepal; for Nepalese Micro Hydropower, the opportunities available
and the challenges that one might come across to do so in detail.

1.1. An Overview of Francis Turbines

After a series of experiments on Boyden’s inward flow turbine, James B. Francis; a British-American
engineer, adopted the designs of Howd and Poncelot inward-flow wheels to develop his own model.
He did experiments on his model and published his work in ‘Lowell Hydraulic Experiments’, which is
considered one of the best contributions to hydraulic engineering by American society. Owing to the
contributions he made, the modern Francis turbine is named after him even though it doesn’t resemble
his model [11]. The modern Francis turbine is a mixed flow reaction turbine with numerous
components, each having a specific function in the system. The main components of a Francis turbine
are: runner, its blades, spiral casing, stay vanes, guide vanes, draft tube, etc. [12]. GE Hydro, a tech
giant of Hydro turbines, claims that 60% of the world’s hydroelectricity is generated by Francis
Turbines, making it the most used hydro-turbine in the world [13]. Francis turbine has a wide range of
applicability, in terms of head, flow and power, as shown in the chart below thus its speed number lies
in the range 0.2 to 1.25; speed number is dimensionless quantity, based on which turbine type can be
selected for given characteristic parameters. The head requirement for this type of turbine can usually

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Current Research in Hydropower Technologies (CRHT IX) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 1266 (2019) 012007 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1266/1/012007

range from 20m to 800m and the flow required is in the medium range [14]. Francis turbines are very
well known for their efficiency and the predictability of the efficiency to a very high accuracy. It has
been used for the extraction of huge amount of power with comparatively smaller size than other types
of turbines. In spite of the outstanding performances, Francis turbines are often associated with the
problems of cavitation and erosion. In addition to that its complex structure and number parts makes it
difficult to design, manufacture and maintain. Moreover, Francis turbines are not preferred for the sites
where there is high variation in the head and flow [14].

Figure 1. Turbine application range chart of different turbine types [15]

2. Development of MHP in Nepal

Government of Nepal recognizes the hydropower plants ranging from 5kW to 100kW as micro
hydropower plants. Mostly, micro hydro is of ‘run of river’ type plants; which means that the plant
uses the flow of the river and there is almost no storage of water. Thus, this does not require
construction of dams and other large civil structures. The civil structures, if present, contribute to
conduct the water to the penstock and maintain the level of water at intake to the plant. Micro Hydro
are considered to be one of the most environmentally benign energy technologies as they do not have
any adverse effect on the surroundings, like the large hydropower projects do[10]. Nepal had been
using hydropower through traditional water wheels called ‘Ghattas’ for mechanical power; food
processing. Kathmandu Metal Industries had been manufacturing the Ghattas for grinding mills and
other machines. The real journey of Micro Hydro, in terms of electricity generation, started in Nepal,
in 1962, when a 5kW propeller turbine was manufactured and installed, at Godavari Fish Farm, by

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Current Research in Hydropower Technologies (CRHT IX) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 1266 (2019) 012007 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1266/1/012007

BYS, a Swiss funded project. Swiss turbine manufacturers provided the drawings required for the
manufacturing of the turbine as a part of Swiss Association for Technical Assistance. Development
and Consulting Services (DCS), a joint venture company of then His Majesty’s government of Nepal
(HMG/N) and United Mission to Nepal (UMN), had its fair share of contribution for the development
micro hydro in Nepal [16]. Electrification alone was not enough to justify the need of installation of
the micro hydro in rural areas and thus mechanical end uses for rice husking and flour milling was
done, which increased the productivity of micro hydro [17]. Agricultural Development Bank of
Nepal(ADBN) realized the impact micro hydro can make on agricultural and industrial production and
started financing the traditional ‘Ghattas’ and their improvised versions since 1968. The initiative
continued and the financial support was also provided to the water turbines with the electrification
components. ADBN’s contribution for the development of micro hydro can be substantiated by the
fact that it invested over 83 million Nrs in 685 micro hydro, until 1992 [18].

After realizing the need of a versatile turbine which could adapt to the different heads and flows, BYS
decided to manufacture and install cross flow turbine in 1974. One of the main reasons for the
selection was the simplicity of the manufacturing process compared to other sophisticated turbines;
Manufacturing of the whole machine was possible with just welding process and some bending for the
blades. It was important back then as welding was one technique Nepalese manufacturers were
competent at, due to the training programs initiated by Norwegian aids. They made different
modifications in the initial model and have reached to ‘T15’ model from their first model, ‘T1’ [19].
Pelton Turbine was manufactured subsequently, in 1975, by Butwal Technical Institute; established in
1963 as a project of UMN with the initiations of an Norwegian Engineer, Odd Hofftun[9][20].
International Agencies like SKAT, from Switzerland; ITDG, from U.K.; GATE/GTZ, from Germany
and FAKT, from Germany have played vital roles in R&D, promotion, installation and monitoring &
evaluation of MHP. These agencies were crucial in the introduction of different turbines currently
being manufactured in Nepal [21]. There are other private and government companies which cannot go
unmentioned when it’s about the development of Micro Hydro in Nepal; Kathmandu Metal Industries
Pvt. Ltd., Nepal Yantra Shala Energy Pvt. Ltd., Thapa Engineering Industries are often mentioned as
the pioneers of turbine manufacturing; within Nepal and abroad[9].

The number of entrepreneurs investing in the new, on demand, technology increased greatly during the
mid-1980s, when the micro hydro could compete with the diesel driven milling systems, in terms of
quality and cost [22]. The manufacturers who were actively involved in the development of micro
hydro decided to come under a common umbrella organization called Nepal Micro Hydro
Development Association (NMHDA), in December 1992. NMHDA has been accelerating the
development of the Micro Hydro in Nepal since its inception by providing technical assistance to the
entrepreneurs and representing the private sector in the development of policies collaborating with the
government agencies [23]. AEPC is another government agency; established in November 1996, under
then Ministry of Science and Technology of the Government of Nepal which has been promoting the
renewable energy in Nepal, including Micro Hydro. The establishment of these agencies facilitated the
development of micro hydro in Nepal and the progress has been substantial; there are more than 3300
Micro Hydro in Nepal electrifying more than 350,000 households in the rural areas [24]. The argument
that micro hydro has been successful in Nepal can be solidified by the fact that the percentage of
population having access to electricity in the rural areas has gone up whooping 85% from just 17% in
15 years[25].

2.1 Relevance and status of the use of micro Francis turbines in Nepal
Even though Nepalese industries made some attempts to manufacture and use the Francis turbines in
micro hydro in the past, expected success could not be achieved [9]. Annual progress report of AEPC,

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Current Research in Hydropower Technologies (CRHT IX) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 1266 (2019) 012007 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1266/1/012007

2009, reports that introduction of a 33kW Micro Francis turbine, which was much smaller than the
original cross-flow turbine, increased the production by 6kW [26]. With the aim to develop the micro
hydro sector, NMHDA has established a model MHP near Kathmandu, which will be a dedicated
technical center for the research, development and training in relation to the micro hydro. A separate
space has been left for the installation of Francis turbine. The Francis turbine to be installed is being
designed and manufactured as a part of the research study at KU [24]. A 92kW Francis turbine, scale
down model of 4.2MW Francis turbine of Jhimruk Hydropower Project, has been manufactured by
NHE, Butwal. The turbine was designed at TTL, KU with the aim to evaluate its performance in terms
of efficiency and erosion against the conventionally designed models [27]. This shows the competence
of Nepalese manufacturers in manufacturing the Francis turbine of micro scale. Nepalese
manufacturers also have experiences of repair and maintenance of imported Francis turbines, installed
at different hydropower projects in Nepal. A feasibility study done as a project at KU concludes that
the Nepalese manufacturers have bright future in the field of Francis turbine manufacturing [28].
Another more detailed feasibility study performed by TTL, KU; submitted to NORAD, concluded that
the technology and knowledge available at the time was adequate for the manufacturing of Francis
turbines up to 5MW [29]. Despite this fact, there has not been enough progress in the manufacturing of
the Francis turbines, even in the micro hydro range. Lack of knowledge about the design and
manufacturing procedure could be the reason for the manufacturers not to attempt the feat. Thus,
realizing the need of introducing the Francis turbine in the Micro hydro range; this research project,
funded by RenewableNepal, was proposed by TTL, KU.

Figure 2. 92kW Francis turbine Test rig at TTL, Figure 3. 92kW Francis turbine designed and
KU manufactured in Nepal[30]

2.2. Prospects of utilizing Francis turbines

6000 rivers and rivulets flowing through the country have bestowed Nepal with 83,000MW of
theoretical hydroelectric potential, of which very few have been exploited. The difficulty of grid
extension in the hilly and Himalayan region of Nepal makes micro hydro the best option for rural
electrification in Nepal [22]. Afore mentioned potential does not include the micro hydro potential of
Nepal, as Dr. H. M. Shrestha, in his dissertation, considered only those rivers which had more than 300
sq. km of catchment area, this leaves rivers with less catchment area but still having potential to
generate electricity. Thus, it is estimated that more than 1000MW electricity can be generated by
installing the micro hydropower plants at those rivers [31]. A study done at TTL on the prediction of
turbine needed for the Future Hydropower concluded that 75% of the turbines required for the future
hydropower will be Francis turbine [32]. A preliminary analysis of the earthquake affected MHP
showed that more than 50% of the sites were suitable for Francis turbine, but other turbines were used
with the efficiency of 50%-60% [30]. Data from 27 Micro hydro power projects, for which turbines
were manufactured by Thapa Engineering Industries Pvt. Ltd., Butwal, were analyzed to determine the

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Current Research in Hydropower Technologies (CRHT IX) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 1266 (2019) 012007 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1266/1/012007

type of the turbine used at each site and it was found that 18 out of 27 sites were suitable for Francis
turbine. While, these sites used cross flow turbines and had average efficiency of 65% with maximum
efficiency 71%. In addition to that, the data received from NMHDA, on the micro hydro sites of
Taplejung district showed that 13 out of 34 sites were suitable for installation of Francis turbines. But,
most of these sites used Cross flow turbines and had average efficiency of just 61%. These data
illustrates that the sites suitable for Francis turbine are abundantly available in Nepal. Use of Francis
turbines in these sites could have generated more power than the current generation of power, which
was the case at Handi Khola, Sindhupalchok, as mentioned above [26]. The policy of Nepal Electricity
Authority for purchasing the electricity from micro hydro has motivated developers to select more
efficient turbines.

2.3 Challenges
There are numerous challenges in using the Francis turbine, starting from the design itself. The modern
design process of the Francis turbine involves the optimization of blade shape using Computational
Fluid Dynamics, competence in which is lacking with Nepalese manufacturers at present. In addition
to that, the accuracy of the blade profile matters a lot in the energy conversion process and the
advanced manufacturing technique required to manufacture runner with high accuracy is not available
with Nepalese turbine manufacturers at present. While designing a Francis turbine for micro scale,
controlling the vortex shedding can be a challenge for the designers [33]. The reluctance of Nepalese
manufacturers to take the risks and invest on research for new product or technology is often
mentioned as one of the reasons for not being able to manufacture Francis turbines till date. Lack of
skilled manpower at the power plant has been a problem in Nepalese micro hydropower since the
beginning and it’s going to be troublesome to have unskilled plant operator at a plant with Francis
turbine as it requires continuous condition controlling[14][34].

3. State of the art in MHP

Francis turbine is famous for being used in some of the largest hydropower in the world. Even though
it is not very popular in the micro hydro, as the efficiency achieved in the large scale turbines cannot
be achieved in smaller turbines due to manufacturing constraints, Francis turbine has been found being
used in numerous micro hydropower plants around the world as its efficiency would still be better than
other types of turbines. Francis turbines were the go to turbines for the micro hydro and low head sites
in the first quarter of the 20th century even after the development of Kaplan turbine. Lately, the modern
CFD methods have been used to improve the efficiency of the micro Francis turbines [35]. The
northern neighbor of Nepal, China, deserves a special mention when it’s about micro hydro
development with Francis Turbines. Moreover, Chinese are very well known for their manufacturing
capability and have been manufacturing standardized micro Francis turbine generators in large scale
for some time now [10]. There are some mentions of the Francis turbines being used in micro hydro in
India as well [36]. Myanmar doesn’t have a long and profound history of MHP like Nepal does, but
the development of the MHP sector has been exemplary in the recent years. Even without the proper
technical trainings, international funding and the support of the government, initiations from
Myanmar’s social entrepreneurs have successfully alleviated the sector. The local manufacturers in
Myanmar are motivated and have been manufacturing Francis turbines for micro hydro applications,
with much less experience in the field [37]. Recently, the 3D scanning technology has been used to get
a 3D model of the micro Francis runner, which is optimized to improve the efficiency, and new runner
is manufactured.

4. Future directions
It is clear that being dependent on the foreign manufacturers for turbines would make Nepalese
hydropower industry unsustainable. And according to the need, manufacturing Francis turbines locally

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Current Research in Hydropower Technologies (CRHT IX) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 1266 (2019) 012007 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1266/1/012007

can surely sustain the industry. As Nepalese manufacturers lack experience in manufacturing Francis
turbines, extensive research is required before jumping into manufacturing the turbines for the actual
hydropower. The center of excellence at TTL has been performing research to solve the problems of
hydraulic turbines and certify the turbine designs after doing model tests on an IEC standard test rig
[38]. TTL is also envisioned as a testing facility for newly designed micro Francis turbines and has
been working closely with AEPC and NMHDA to motivate the turbine manufacturers to test their
turbines before installing them at site. At present, research is going on to develop a design of a
simplified Francis turbine which can be manufactured using the locally available manufacturing
technology. Bovet approach will be used to develop the meridional flow channel and the complete
runner will be created using the conformal mapping. This approach of designing Francis turbine has
never been used in Nepal as ‘Khoj’ software is very convenient in designing high head Francis
turbines, but fails to design low head Francis turbines. The current research will focus in creating a
similar software which can create a 3D geometry of a Francis turbine for low head applications. The
designs will be optimized using the modern optimization techniques and the results obtained from
CFD will be validated by tests at TTL or the installation site. The project aims to manufacture the
different components of the turbine by using the local technologies such as casting, forging and
machining. One such attempt is already being made at TTL, KU as a MS project of Mr. D.R. Dahal.
The turbine manufactured will be tested at TTL and installed at the technical center established by
NMHDA at Dhamile Khola MHP. The design methodology for the turbine will be made available to
the local manufacturers so that they can start manufacturing the Francis turbines for MHP. The
manufacturers should keep building their manufacturing capacity and competence to scale up from
micro to mini and subsequently larger hydropower projects. In addition to that, researchers and
manufacturers should collaborate continuously to develop more advanced turbines in Nepal.

Figure 4. 14kW Francis runner casted by local Figure 5. 14kW Francis runner parts forged and
sculptor machined

5. Conclusions
Micro hydro has been very effective in rural electrification of Nepal. Private sector; turbine
manufacturers have had their fair share of contribution in the development of Nepalese MHP. For
more than 60 years Nepalese turbine manufacturers have been manufacturing the cross flow and
Pelton turbines of different models. Some consider the manufacturing of the conventional turbines, in
Nepalese industries, has been saturated and that its time to start manufacturing Francis turbines in
Nepal. Cross-flow and Pelton turbines are being used at efficiency of 50%-70%, even when the site
conditions favored Francis Turbines. Feasibility studies has suggested that the manufacturing
technology available in Nepal is adequate to manufacture the Francis turbines up to 5MW but turbine
manufacturers do not seem motivated enough to initiate the manufacturing. The current research aims
to motivate the turbine manufacturers by installing a Francis turbine, designed considering the local

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Current Research in Hydropower Technologies (CRHT IX) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 1266 (2019) 012007 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/1266/1/012007

manufacturing technology and manufactured by a local manufacturer, at an MHP in Nepal. This work
elucidates the opportunities for Nepalese manufacturers to start manufacturing Francis turbines in
Nepal. In addition to that, it also identifies the challenges that come along, while considering the
Francis turbines for Nepalese micro hydro. The manufacturing of Francis turbines for Micro
hydropower projects should be taken as a learning step to manufacture the Francis turbines for larger
applications on the long run.

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Acknowledgments

This paper is submitted as an outcome of the Work Package 1; need assessment; for the research:
‘Capacity and Competence Development for introducing Francis turbines in Nepalese Hydropower
Projects’ at Turbine Testing Lab (TTL), Kathmandu University. The research program is funded by
RenewableNepal Project at TTL. Authors would like to thank TTL, Aatmaram Kayastha, Aman
Kapalil, Rabina Awal and Prajwal Sapkota for their continuous help and support.