Nepal, which is undergoing acute power shortage, expected resumption of importing 60 MW of electricity from energy-hungry India through the cross-border line after restoring the electricity towers toppled by the Koshi River in Sunsari district last year.
The Koshi River had toppled five electricity towers in Nepal and other towers in Bihar state of India in August 2008 after the swelling river breached its embankment and diverted eastward through villages. Import of power from India had stopped ever since the flood ravaged the Duhabi-Kataiya cross-border transmission line.
"The Indian side had said they would supply electricity by 3 p.m. Tuesday. We kept waiting till evening, but they have not supplied the power so far (as of 7:30 p.m.). We are hopeful that they will supply it on Wednesday morning as there is less chance to resume it in the night," Sher Singh Bhat, Director System Operation, NEA, told myrepublica.com.
As of the evening, the NEA officials were not given any reason about the delay in supply.
Gloomy picture ahead
People in the country were desperately looking forward to resumption of power import from India through Duhabi-Kataiya transmission as the NEA had earlier assured the people of at least halving the lengthy load-shedding schedule in a substantial level.
But, lately the NEA officials have painted a gloomy picture of the future. They said the public authority is not in the position to decrease the load-shedding hours saying that situation was changing against their expectations and it was turning from bad to worse.
Bhat said he is still not in the position to announce what exactly would be the situation of power cut after importing electricity from India.
"First let us be clear how much of electricity India provides. Then only we will be in the position to speak about the load-shedding schedule," he said. The officials are expecting to receive 50 to 60 MW of electricity from India.
Even after resumption in power supply from India, the NEA is not in the position to reduce the load-shedding for various reasons.
NEA has been operating the only storage-type Kulekhani project in its full capacity. This way, officials say, the reservoir could run dry soon so they must generate power at the minimum level from the plant, he said.
"Currently we are generating about 900,000 units from Kulekhani, while immediately after we receive power through Duhabi-Kataiya cross-border transmission line we will decrease it to about 200,000 units to 300,000 units at the most," he said. Water level in Kulekhani reservoir has remained at a record low this year.
The 36-MW Bhotekoshi Hydroelectric Project, which was currently generating 14 MW, remains shut for over two weeks due to technical problems.
On top of that, according to Bhat, water levels in the rivers feeding various hydro projects have rapidly receded lately to the shock of NEA engineers. All the hydroelectric projects in the country, except Kulekhani, are built in run-of-the-river model.
"We have already lost about 50 MW due to the aforementioned problems. So we may not be able to cut load-shedding hours under the present circumstances," Bhat added.
Power cuts more than notified
Following the closure of Bhotekoshi, NEA has cut power for about two hour more per day than the current load-shedding schedule.
The current schedule was announced on January 23. Currently the NEA has enforced 96 hours power cut per week that works out at 14 hours a day.
"We have not informed the people about the additional power cut because we have to reschedule it again once we resume import from India within a week," he clarified.
"We will remove the unnoticed power cuts. But, I am not sure whether we will be able to reduce the load-shedding schedule from 14 hours a day," he added.
thira@myrepublica.com
Related story
NEA to resume electricity supply to six industries
