It is almost certain that Kathmandu denizens will not have to witness any blackouts, at least during this dry season, as Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) will be able to supply additional 40 megawatts of imported power to Kathmandu from February 1.

This is because the newly built 132 kV Dhalkebar-Khimti-Lamusangu-Bhaktapur transmission line has been charged successfully, paving the way to supply imported power to Kathmandu, the major load centre of the country.

After successfully charging the transmission line from Monday evening, NEA is going to conduct further tests over the next few days to fully ensure the lines can handle the quantum of electricity being brought in from India.

“Similar to other electrical equipment, transmission lines and transformers also need to be charged to test whether it will function or not,” said Prabal Adhikari, chief of Power Trade Department at NEA. “Based on the initial results, it is quite certain now that we will be able to transfer up to 90 MW power through this line in the future.”

NEA has already signed power purchase agreement with NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam of India to increase electricity import from existing 120 MW to 160 MW from February 1. In this regard, NEA will supply at least 40 MW to Kathmandu from February 1.

NEA will start supplying around 30 to 40 MW power as test transmission during day time to Kathmandu from this weekend, according to Adhikari. “Dhalkebar-Khimti-Lamusangu-Bhaktapur transmission line was set up as a critical infrastructure to bring imported power to Kathmandu.”

As the transmission line is at the shortest distance from Kathmandu, it is more feasible to supply the imported power to Kathmandu using the line because there is low risk of voltage fluctuation in shorter distances. Until now, there was no reliable infrastructure (transmission line) to bring the imported power to Kathmandu even as Nepal has been importing power from India since long.

Currently, Kathmandu, Pokhara, Bharatpur and eastern Nepal are not witnessing any power cuts, while load-shedding has been limited to three to four hours in the rest of the country.