KATHMANDU: The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has launched an advanced data center of international standards.

Located next to the load dispatch center in Syuchatar, Kathmandu, the state-of-the-art data center has been developed to provide future services to commercial companies.

The three-story prefabricated building houses several facilities.

The ground floor features a control room for monitoring, regulating, and securing the Kathmandu Valley’s underground power distribution system. The first floor contains office and network operation rooms, while the top floor hosts the data center.

Built to Tier 3 international standards, this is the first model data center in Nepal under the ‘Digital NEA Program,’ aiming to modernize NEA’s service delivery.

The center will integrate and systematically store all IT-related servers and data for the Authority.

Kulman Ghising, NEA’s Executive Director, mentioned that the Authority plans to create a private cloud for data storage.

Additionally, a disaster recovery center is being developed at the New Butwal substation in Sunwal, Nawalparasi, to ensure data security.

Until its completion, the old data center at NEA’s head office will function as the recovery center.

The new data center includes 40 IT racks, with 36 server racks and 4 network racks.

It features uninterrupted power supply (N+1 power supply), cooling systems, automated fire control, CCTV surveillance, and continuous monitoring for operations and security.

Multiple backup systems ensure constant power supply.

To handle local or national power system issues, two 1 MW generators are on standby, and two 300 kVA modular UPS units have been installed.

Lithium-ion batteries are used for UPS reliability.

Maintenance or equipment replacement can occur without shutting down the center.

Optical fiber connections with alternative routes link the head office at Ratnapark to the data center, connecting through Teku and Balaju. Staff are assigned to operate the data center 24/7.

Besides the data center, infrastructure is set up to monitor, regulate, and control the underground distribution system under construction, aimed at automating the Kathmandu Valley’s power distribution.

This will connect substations and switching stations across the valley.

The center also includes a charging station for three electric vehicles at a time.

Construction was contracted to the Chinese company Yantai Dongfang Wisdom Electric Company in July 2021, with work starting in November of the same year.

Funded by the government, NEA, and a concessional loan from the Asian Development Bank, the project costs approximately Rs 1.4 billion.