KATHMANDU, NOVEMBER 3

Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has made alternative arrangements for power supply in Mugu and Humla that has suffered outage for more than three weeks after the small hydropower projects were heavily damaged due to incessant rains.

As the power plants damaged by the landslides are unable to resume operation without being rebuilt and repaired, the NEA has arranged diesel generators for power supply to Mugu and Humla.

A team including NEA Managing Director (MD) Kulman Ghising, Deputy MD Manoj Silwal, Chief of Karnali Regional Office Shambhu Yadav had reached Simikot with the generators on Wednesday.

As reconstruction of the power plants will take at least one more month, generators and diesel are being transported by helicopter to provide alternative power supply, said Ghising.

'The cost of producing electricity through generators is more than Rs 80 per unit, but most of the consumers here will only have to pay a minimum of Rs 30 a unit,' he informed.

This basically means that the authority will be incurring losses while operating the generators in the two districts.

'However, since it is the state's responsibility to provide power to every household, we've supplied the power through the generators without considering the cost,' he added.

The authority has taken the 300 kVA generator in Kalikot, Mugu for power supply in Gamgadhi and surrounding areas while 125 kVA and 100 kVA generators for Simikot and surrounding areas of Humla.

The authority has 3,100 customers in Mugu and 2,300 in Humla.

The generators were taken from Kulekhani Power Station and New Butwal Substation to Simikot which were then transported by road to Gamgadhi in Mugu.

In the case of Humla, which is not yet connected by the road, the diesel and generator were transported to Simikot via helicopter from Gamgadhi.

Supply of electricity has been completely obstructed in two districts as landslides and floods due to incessant downpour from October 4 to 11 have destroyed the canals of the 400 kW Gamgadh in Mugu and the 500 kW Heldung small hydroelectric power plant in Humla.

A version of this article appears in the print on November 4, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.