KATHMANDU, April 16: The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has decided to cut the load-shedding time by two hours a day with effect from Friday, thanks to snow-melting in high Himalayas taking place in the recent days. [break]
The NEA was enforcing power cut schedule of 96 hours a week (14 hours a day on average) since January 23. The public utility, however, used to cut electricity supply for more hours without officially notifying the consumers in the past citing various reasons.
“We will decrease the load-shedding time by two hours with effect from tomorrow (Friday),” Uttar Kumar Shrestha, executive director of NEA, announced Thursday evening at a function in capital.
The load-shedding schedule in the industrial and other areas where the NEA has provided dedicated feeders will remain the same until notified, according to Shrestha.
The 70 MW Middle Marsyangdi Hydro Project (Mid-Marsyangdi) has been generating electricity in its full capacity in the evening for two to three hours for past one week. One of the two turbines is producing around 20 to 35 MW of electricity round the clock. The Mid-Marsyangdi has two turbines each with generation capacity of 35 MW.
The NEA has been operating both the turbines in the evening hours for last 10 days due to rise in water level in the snow-fed Marsyangdi river, according to Sunil Dhungel, Mid-Marsyangdi project director.
Dhungel said that they were generating electricity at the project as per the demand from the Load Dispatch Center of NEA.
The increment in water level in the rivers that feed the hydropower projects due to brief rainfall earlier this month contributed to the increment of power generation, according to Sher Singh Bhat, system operation director at the NEA.
In all, run-of-river power projects contribute to 230 MW of electricity currently while it was 193 MW during the driest season.
In Nepal all the projects -- except Kulekhani -- are built on run-of-river model.
Nepal needs 800 MW of electricity, of which NEA has been able to arrange only half of the demand through various domestic productions and international power grid.
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