KATHMANDU, APRIL 24

It's been an unusually dry season with little or no rain, and this has had telling impact on hydropower production in the country.

Due to the low water level in the rivers, power output from the hydropower plants is down by 30 per cent, which has forced Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) to cut power supply to the industrial hub along the Morang-Sunsari corridor in Koshi Province, affecting a large number of enterprises.

Industrialists are thus up in arms following the power outage, although NEA's managing director Kul Man Ghising has said the problem would ease soon with the arrival of the pre-monsoon rains. Nepal faced extreme weather conditions in recent weeks, with no rains and excessive heat especially in the Tarai belt, causing unprecedented forest fires across the country.

Although electricity production in the country has been increasing since the past few years, there has been a sharp decline in power output this time of the year due to lack of snow and rain. Power from private sector this year is said to have dropped to just 14 per cent of their installed capacity.

Vagaries of the weather apart, the problem of power supply also stems from NEA's inability to evacuate power from the power plants for use by the consumers for lack of transmission lines or their capacity to do so. The transmission line from the Dhalkebar sub-station cannot supply enough power to the eastern parts of the country. The Rupni substation in Saptari is damaged, and the NEA is unable to import power from Bihar, India through the 132 kV Kataiya-Kushaha transmission line, which has been disrupted. Nepal is currently importing about 500 MW of power from India. So as not to see a repeat of this year's problem during the dry season next year, the authority is banking upon the construction of the 400 kV Dhalkebar-Inaruwa and 220 kV Hetauda-Bharatpur-Bardaghat-New Butwal transmission lines at the earliest. These lines should ease the supply of power.

No one knows for sure how climate change will affect us in the future, and this leaves us with no option other than to prepare for the worst. Power generation has dwindled at the moment largely due to a drop in the water level in the run-of-river power plants, which form the bulk of both NEA and private sector projects. Hence, Nepal must opt for more reservoir-type projects like the Kulekhani that can run at full capacity whenever required. Secondly, the NEA must complete all transmission lines in time so that power from one part of the country can be supplied to another part where there is a demand. It is unfortunate that the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC)-funded transmission line has been embroiled in controversy time and again. Apart from extending the transmission line from New Butwal to the Indian border for power export, it will link up with New Damauli, Ratmate, Hetauda and Lapsiphedi in Kathmandu – in total more than 300 kilometres. In the future, as more and more electricity keeps generating in the country, the NEA will not be in a position to look after its three primary functions of generating, transmitting and distributing power in an efficient manner. Hence, some of these tasks should be handed over to the private sector.

A version of this article appears in the print on April 25, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.