Power outage jumps to 6 hrs a day
Useful Links
» A new way to read online, exact replica of your daily and magazine
» For all you tweety fans out there!
» Allows you to find only those news from any date you choose!
» Search any news/ articles by author/ category/ date/ keyword
KATHMANDU, DEC 04 -
With the onset of winter, the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has announced to increase daily power outage from existing two to six hours on an average effective from Monday.
NEA officials said the national grid has come under tremendous pressure with the dry season causing a huge demand-supply gap. The power demand has increased to over 950 MW this year against the total supply of around 650 MW, said Chiranjibi Sharma, director at the Department of Systems Operation and Maintenance under the NEA. Last year, the consumers experienced power cuts up to 14 hours a day with over 10 hours daily in December.
The power demand is around nine percent more than last year’s peak power demand of around 880 MW, while only around eight megawatt is added to the national grid during this period. The 4.6-MW Mai Khola Hydropower is the only major project completed recently.
Sharma said the power supply is also affected due to the shutdown of Marshyangdi Hydro Electricity Project ( 69 MW) for repair and maintenance. It was supplying around 58 MW to the national grid. Likewise, the 70-MW Middle Marshyangdi Hydro Electricity Project is likely face a similar fate in coming days, further worsening the power shortage, said NEA officials.
Similarly, the delay in commissioning major hydel projects—namely Kulekhani III (14 MW) and Chameliya (30 MW)—that were expected to be completed during the fiscal year of 2011-2012, along with few micro hydro projects totalling to around additional 40 MW in the national grid is another major reason behind the increasing power woes.
The hydro generation capacity is about 650 MW, while projects with the capacity of 750 MW are under construction.
However, Sharma said the recent decision of the Indian government to provide additional 100 MW to Nepal to ease the power shortage through the existing transmission lines at the earliest gives a positive environment in the overall power supply scenario in the country. “We are working to import additional power from India as early as possible to ease the power shortage this winter,” said Energy Secretary Balananda Poudel.
Major projects to be completed between 2012 and 2017
l Upper Tamakoshi Hydro Electricity Project (456 MW)
l Upper Trishuli 3 A (60 MW)
l Chameliya (30 MW)
l Rahughat (30 MW)
l Kulekhani III (14 MW)
Posted on: 2011-12-04 09:14
Post Your Comment