BARA, July 10: Rural areas under Simraunagadh and Kalaiya Electricity Distribution Center (EDC) have been facing up to 50 percent power leakage every day. The leakage causes power loss worth Rs 25 million per month, stated officials of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) at Kalaiya.
According to the Chief of the EDC Binod Chaudhary, only half of the power distributed through Central Transmission Line (CTL) has been utilized. “About 5.5 million unit power is transmitted through CTL,” said Chaudhary. “Only 2.9 million unit of the power is legally consumed by 45,000 electricity customers in the area.”
Chaudhary said the leakage takes place in Simraunagadh and the villages bordering with the Indian state of Bihar. He added that the NEA officials and police were assaulted when they went to the area to take action against the wrongdoers. As a result of the power theft, transformers in these areas are damaged more often.
Electricity leakage has come down to 7.49 percent
A transformer can operate for a minimum of two to three years if used properly. But the leakage causes damage in transformers because of which transformers need to be replaced two to three times in a year. The number of installed transformers depends on the population of the area. Due to the leakage, the transformers draw up more electricity, causing them to be damaged.
Chaudhary claims that the leakage has gone down by four percent after the NEA took action against some of the wrongdoers with the help of the police. They faced obstruction from the locals while doing so, Chaudhary claimed. The leakage had gone up to 54 percent two years back.
Kalaiya EDC statistics shows that a total of 475 persons from different villages were punished and fined for power theft through hooking. EDC has collected Rs 4.5 million as fine from them.
Apart from power theft, the NEA is also facing difficulty collecting its due revenue.
According to the data of the EDC, although it sells electricity worth Rs 300 million annually, it receives payment of only Rs 250 million. The total due payment since the establishment of the EDC is Rs 483 million. The defaulters include government offices, organizations and household consumers.
