Jan 08 - BBC Monitoring South Asia


Citing significant differences in the demand and supply of power, Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) is planning to increase the load- shedding hours to 16 hours a day in a couple of days, much earlier than projected.

Earlier, NEA authorities had predicted this increase in early February after the water volume in rivers started to recede significantly. Now, electricity consumers in the country are facing daily load-shedding up to 12 hours.

According to an official at NEA System Operations Department, the load-shedding hours are likely to jump further after power generation from Kali Gandaki "A" decreased by more than 60 per cent.

"The 144-MW Kali Gandaki 'A' is generating only 60 MW nowadays and power generation is expected to decrease to 50 MW in the coming days," a source added. Likewise, the 60 MW Khimti hydroelectric project is only generating 18 MW.

Meanwhile, the water level at Kulekhani Reservoir [south of Kathmandu] is at its lowest ever.

"NEA is doing homework to increase load-shedding to 16 hours a day in a couple of days, though the official announcement date has not yet been decided," according to the source. Officials at the System Operations Department said they had started to increase the power outage to 16 hours a day from Thursday as the deficit of units is too high to handle.

According to NEA, the daily demand of power is 500 MW in the daytime and 800 MW in evening. However, the supply is only 320 MW, including the power imported from India.

On Tuesday, the water level went down by 30-35 cm Kulekhani Reservoir, while the level of water to be used from the reservoir should be only 10 cm to generate electricity from Kulekhani till April.

Originally published by Kathmandu Post via eKantipur website in English 8 Jan 09.

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