Power crisis to worsen for next 5 yrs

Power crisis to worsen for next 5 yrs
House panel for crisis mgmt, tough measures
eKantipur.com, 4-Feb-08

Nepal's power distribution monopoly, Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), on Monday said it can do little to deal with the chronic power crisis in the country.

NEA said the country would face increasingly worse power cuts till 2012/13, when hydropower projects in the pipeline are expected to start generation.

"The country will face a still worse power crisis for the next five years," said NEA chief Arjun Kumar Karki, answering queries from lawmakers at parliament's Finance Committee. "The only way out is power import from India. Unfortunately, both demand and price of power in the Indian market are rising too steeply to make this an easy option for us," Karki said.

According to Karki, by the time the 70 MW Middle Marsyangdi project comes into operation in 2008-end, power demand in the country will have shot up by more than 70 MW from the existing demand. There is no other sizeable project under construction in the country.

NEA has enforced up to eight hours of power cuts per household daily in the country, and this duration could be extended to 11 hours daily in mid-March.

Karki told the panel that crippling power cuts have become inevitable owing to a consumption shift. "The only power we are saving through cuts is the power used for lighting purposes. People use power for other purposes whenever electricity is available," he said.

Also, massive use of power-inefficient inverters for hoarding power, heavy use of street lamps by local bodies citing security reasons, operation of industries during peak hours, and an increasing use of electric hoarding boards have contributed to increasing pressure on the nation's power system, he said.

Measures suggested

Lawmakers on the parliamentary panel suggested measures to deal with the burgeoning power crisis, and directed NEA to furnish time-bound crisis solutions next Monday.

Nepali Congress lawmaker Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat suggested imposition of a heavy financial penalty on consumers using more than the optimum quantity of electricity. "Given the power crisis, we have to announce penalties on consumers using too much electricity," Mahat said.

Lawmakers also suggested directing local bodies to replace the bulbs used in street lamps with compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs), which use power more efficiently, and initiate a public campaign encouraging the use of CFLs. The lawmakers also asked NEA to suggest ways to reduce power leakage, specifically power theft. Currently, NEA's leakage stands at 24 percent.

Expressing the panel's commitment to cooperate with NEA on every front for addressing the power crisis, UML lawmaker Mangal Siddhi Manandhar told NEA, "This is a national crisis. We need measures to deal with it and those measures may be drastic. We are willing to back you to the full."