KATHMANDU: The nation is likely to witness 16 hours of load shedding per day starting from November as no power is likely to be added to the main grid in between.

“It is almost sure that load shedding hours will go up to at least of 16 hours as the demand for energy increases by about 80 MW each year; and the government has the policy of adding around two lakh households each year to the main grid line,” said Diwakar Paudel, Deputy Managing Director, Finance, Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA).

In 2009 the annual peak hour demand was recorded 885.28 MW which is 8.96 per cent higher than the 2008 demand of 812.5 MW. NEA cut down the 16-hour load shedding to 12 hours last year, buying 60 MW electricity from India. “There are slim chances that we will be able to increase electricity import from India this year. In the last one year we received only around 20 MW in the national grid from domestic production,” said Shankar Prasad Koirala, Secretary, Ministry of Energy. “But the demand may increase by at least 80 MW this year, causing load shedding hours to go up.”

Besides, no project is likely to add electricity to the national grid in the coming months, and there has not been any discussion on installation of thermal power plants, which are said to be one option to overcome the problems facing the nation.

At present, 697 MW is generated. This includes diesel power plants in Hetauda and Duhabi (53 MW). In 2009, NEA reached power purchase agreements with 27 power developers for a capacity of 137.22 MW. “Electricity is not a short-term business. It takes long time to reach power production phase so there should be some alternative way to tackle the problem as power production rate is far less than the demand,” maintained Koirala.

Courtesy : The Himalayan Times

 
HETAUDA: The two production units of Kulekhani hydro project will be shut down for two weeks starting today for repair works. The turbines of production houses one and two will be shut for the repair works. Kulekhani I produces 60 MW of power while the second produces 32 MW.
However, Nepal Electricity Authority informed that it would not affect the load shedding hours. Chief of Kulekhani I Sachhinanda Mishra informed that the water level might increase by one metre in Mansarobar after the repair works was finished. The water level was 93.3 metres in Mansarobar on Tuesday.
According to Mishra, they had to dry the penstock pipe to repair the inlet valve.
 Mishra said, “This is the first time we are repairing the turbines after it was assembled in 1982.”  He informed that senior technicians of the NEA along with two Japanese technicians would be involved in the maintenance work.
He added that the shortfall of power in the national transmission would be balanced by the load supply balance as per the necessity.