11 hours of daily load shedding in the offing

The country is going to face up to 11 hours of load shedding every day in coming dry season (November-April).

Speaking at an interaction by the Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) on Thursday, Sher Singh Bhat, chief of NEA's Load Dispatching Center (LDC) said, "The worst power cuts of 11 hours per day will happen in February-March 2008."

According to Bhat, the peak electricity demand expected in the upcoming dry season is 714 megawatts while, the supply during the period will be below 360 megawatts.

Bhat also informed that currently the peak demand for power stands at 640 MW while supply stands at 510 MW.

The only major hydropower project under construction is 70 MW-strong Middle Marsyangdi, which will start delivering power after 2009. Even if the Middle Marsyangdi comes into operation by August 2008, there will still be up to 10 hours daily load sheeding in the dry season of 2008/09.

Even though the government is working to import additional power of 50 MW from India, the huge shortfall in demand and supply means that crippling hours of load shedding is imminent.

"The only solution is to develop our own projects," Bhat said.

According to reports, NEA has plans to start operation of 60 MW Upper Trishuli 3A, 27 MW Rahughat, and 14 MW Kulekhani III by 2010, and 45 MW Upper Trishuli 3B, 30 MW Chamelia, and 309 MW Upper Tamakoshi by 2012. Of these, only Kulekhani III and Chamelia are under construction.