“It was a rollercoaster of emotions,” says Jiban Twayana, Installation Manager, as he recalls getting the news of his installation team member testing positive for the coronavirus.
Gham Power recently completed a major solar installation project with Hotel Yak & Yeti amidst the pandemic. It is the first private sector solar project subsidized by AEPC and financed by NMB bank. In addition, the system installed at Hotel Yak & Yeti is one of Gham Power’s largest projects, and installing it during the time of a global pandemic was a challenging task.
The Gham Power team, like a lot of people experiencing the pandemic, had an initial period of uncharted impediments. The government imposed odd-even restrictions on vehicular movement created challenges in mobilizing our technical team. We explored alternate routes of transportation and opted for new suppliers as the procurement process also took a hit. To ensure the safety of the installation team and the system, regular meetings were conducted virtually with the team of Hotel Yak & Yeti as well.
Even with enforcement of all the necessary precautionary measures, a member of the installation team tested positive for the coronavirus making the installation process take yet another halt. However, we tested the rest of the installation team and once all reports came out negative, the installation team moved forward with even more strict health and safety regulations on the project site.
In spite of all the hurdles the installation team of Gham Power had to overcome, we managed to install the system within 400 man-days.
Tracking the current performance of the system at Hotel Yak & Yeti, statistics reveal that it has been surpassing our estimated results.
The two charts show the normalized production in the last two months of 2021. Both the charts clearly reveal that the system at Hotel Yak and Yeti has been working more efficiently than its prediction from a PV System Simulation. The average production for the month of February was predicted to be 3.46 KWh/KWp/day but the system is producing 3.57 KWh/KWp/day at an average in Hotel Yak & Yeti. Similarly, for the month of March, the average production was estimated to be 3.71 KWh/KWp/day. In reality, for the month of March, the system produced 4.03 KWh/KWp/day at an average in Hotel Yak & Yeti.
The project at Hotel Yak & Yeti had its own share of ups and downs. With a global pandemic at hand, the project took a lot of digressions but we still successfully managed to complete the project. In the present day, our team is still in contact with the team of Hotel Yak & Yeti to provide our after-sales service and receive feedback on the system. Moving forward, we hope to work with organizations, such as Hotel Yak & Yeti, to help them not just reduce their electricity bills but be a helping hand for moving towards a more sustainable source of energy.