Loadshedding hours have fallen drastically in the eastern region of the country, as the state-owned power utility has started to manage electricity load in an efficient manner.

Eastern Nepal was supposed to reel under power outage of up to eight hours per day during this time of the year. But loadshedding continued for only three hours on Tuesday.

Similarly, industries were supposed to witness power outage for nine hours per day during this time of the year. But power cuts have now been restricted to around four hours per day.

Drastic reduction in loadshedding hours has provided relief to both consumers and industries, as they can light up their houses or operate their factories.

“Loadshedding hours have lately come down not because we are importing additional quantum of electricity from India,” Omprakash Rathi, director of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA)’s eastern regional office, said. “Instead, we have started managing load efficiently.”

Lately, NEA has started halting supply of electricity to industries for four hours in the evening, according to Rathi. “That electricity is diverted to households,” he said, adding, “We have also curbed electricity leakages.”

Koshi and Mechi zones currently produce 40 MW of electricity, of which 10 MW was added to the grid last year. These two zones have also been importing 95 MW of electricity from India since last year.

Power consumption in these zones stands at 185 MW during winter and the demand goes up to 225 MW during summer. The Morang-Sunsari industrial corridor alone requires 60 MW of power.

NEA clueless about diesel plant

BIRATNAGAR: It’s been a year since Duhabi Multi-fuel Diesel Centre, which initially used to generate 39 MW of electricity, has stopped functioning. But Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has not been able to take a decision on what to do with the plant, which was repaired at a cost of Rs953.5 million around four years ago. NEA appears clueless, as it would have to spend another Rs1 billion to repair the diesel plant.  The plant has been going defunct from time to time, because of use of adulterated furnace oil. “The machine can filter only 0.3 percent water. However, the content of water in furnace oil supplied by Nepal Oil Corporation stood at as high as 20 to 26 percent,” the centre’s head Binod Kumar Yadav said. The use of adulterated fuel has caused damage to nozzle and pump of the plant. After the plant was repaired the last time, its electricity generation capacity had dipped from 39 MW to 36 MW. Electricity generated by the plant costs Rs30-35 per unit. (PR)