Kathmandu, August 19: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has said that it plans to bring down electricity leakage to 14 percent by next year.
Speaking at the 34th anniversary of the power utility held in the capital yesterday, Kul Man Ghising, managing director of NEA, disclosed such plan. “Electricity leakage went down by 15.32 percent in the last Fiscal Year 2018/19 from 25.78 percent of the previous year. In fact, we have been achieving more than the target every year,” further said Ghising. According to him, the Authority is also committed to providing electricity through the national grid to all the households across the country within two years.
According to Ghising, the power utility was able to supply the electricity in Manang, Solukhumbu, Bajhang and Darchula district headquarters through national grid transmission line last year.
Now it plans to connect Rukum East, Kalikot, Bajura, and Jumla districts to the national grid in the ongoing fiscal year. Similarly, plans are afoot to connect Mugu, Dolpa and Humla districts to the national grid within two years.
The NEA is seeking loans and grant assistance from the World Bank (WB), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to materialize these plans.
In order to balance the quantum of electricity being supplied, NEA is also set to construct the 1,060-megawatt Upper Arun and 635MW Dudhkoshi reservoir hydropower projects within the current fiscal year, Ghising informed.
On the occasion, he also presented the annual report of NEA for the FY 2018/2019. As per the report, the total consumers of the NEA had seen a rise of 9.38 percent in last fiscal year. Around 4,500,000 households get power supply from the national grid. The authority has connected 78 percent of the national population to the national power supply.
In the last fiscal year, 7.55 billion units of electricity were supplied through the NEA system, up by 7 percent compared to the previous fiscal year. Total 6.38 billion units were consumed out of the total supply. The consumption is 14.75 percent more than the last FY.
