Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has been building a data center in Syuchatar, Kalanki, Kathmandu, to digitize and enhance the power industry.
The construction of a modern data center at Syuchatar of Kathmandu has reached the final stage.
NEA said that the data center would be completed in the next two to three months. The power authority, meanwhile, has also been undertaking other tasks such as installing underground wires and smart meters in the capital city of late.
NEA said the construction of a secure data center was expedited to keep all data safe since its business differed from the private sector.
The NEA's data center is different than the one the government has been building and would be dedicated to the power sector.
According to the National Information Technology Center (NITC), currently there are only two data centers -- in Singha Durbar and Hetauda. However, data centers are also being built in Khumaltar and Nepalgunj.
Stating that all government work was being carried out through its data center, NITC said it was working to expand data centers in all seven provinces.
Tara Pradhan, head of NEA Project Management Directorate (PMD), said a data center was required to digitize the power gird as electricity was being distributed through manual mode till date.
The NEA is working to digitizing the national power grid as per the 'Electricity Grid Modernization Project' plan made public in 2020. The project is also installing electricity wires underground in Kathmandu.
With these development, the control center would have access to the data of every node and power station.
The NEA is simultaneously working on establishing a country-wide power control center besides the data center at Syuchatar.
Now on, electricity bill would be stored at Syuchatar-based NEA's data center. So far, NEA has accomplished installing around one hundred thousand smart meters and plans to expand the number to six hundred thousand.
"NEA has over 4.5 million customers and smart meter would gradually reach every customer. The data center is need to streamline and store data of all customers in one place," Pradhan said.
Currently, billing is being done from the server room, which cannot suffice for a data center. Hence, the need of a data center, he explained.
There are 80 substations across Nepal through which electricity is distributed to different cities.
The substations have been in operation through manual mode till date and the NEA plans to digitize and control all data from Syuchatar-based control and data center once the substation automation project gets completed.
Rabindra Shrestha, deputy project manager of the data and control center construction project, said the construction of the data center was being prolonged due to delay in arrival of transformers and other equipment required for the project. The project had anticipated it to complete by December.
"We plan to fully erect the data center within the next two months if there aren't further obstacles," he said.
Data center to last for next 30 to 40 years
The NEA said that the data center being constructed could last till the next 30 to 40 years.
After the data center is completed, the NEA will be able to directly connect with the public. Subsequently, every house that installs solar grid can divert excess power to the national grid and earn from power sales. For this to happen, NEA officials stressed the need of a reliable data center.
The cost of data center construction is in millions of dollars. The NEA has taken loan from the Asian Development Bank for the same," Pradhan said.
It is estimated that the construction of a data center costs about 5 million US dollars.
Once the data center construction is completed, another 'disaster recovery data center' will be needed. Pradhan said the location for construction of recovery data center was yet to be identified.
He explained that if the center's data is destroyed due to disasters such as an earthquake or other natural disasters, center's data could be recovered from recovery data center.
Lack of skilled manpower within the country to build a data center has plagued the NEA and it had to hire international consultant to develop the design and approve standards of the data center.
Pradhan rued the lack of qualified engineer to inspect and approve the standards of the data center being built.
"We had to build our own data center after sensing that it was not safe to share our data elsewhere," Pradhan said. "We are building a data center ourselves realizing the challenge of storing the data of the electric grid, including of customers, outside."
In the absence of standards and appropriate laws regarding data center, there is confusion as to with whom the NEA can share data.
Last but not the least, the government has been carrying out homework to formulate a policy on the standards required to build a data center in Nepal.
