The government aimed to generate 15,000 megawatts of electricity within 10 years, he informed the gathering, adding that fifty percent of power to be produced would be used for export.
He presented a data that 90 percent of total energy consumed in Nepal is based on traditional sources of energy such as biomass and petroproducts, and claimed that Nepal was a high potential zone for hydropower and renewable energy production and internal consumption.
The country presently consumed only seven percent hydropower and renewable energy and the government had planned increasing its volume gradually, he added.
“So far power supply to 88 percent population is based on-grid and off-grid means and power consumption per person in 245 kilowatts per hour,” the Minister apprised the congress and shared to the session that Energy Trade and Transmission Interconnectivity Agreement had been signed with India and the same sort of agreement had been signed with China and Bangladesh as well. A basic level agreement had been achieved for transnational power trade.
He further added consensus had been achieved in regard with a ‘framework’ designed for the energy assistance and exchange among the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation ( Saarc) countries and the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral, Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) nations had reached to a consensus to collaborate in the energy sector.
“Nepal is ready for sub-regional and regional electricity collaboration and works are going on accordingly. The (Nepal) government is committed to realizing the resolution for ‘prosperous Nepal, happy Nepali’,” the Energy Minister said.
As he said, collaboration with neighbors in the energy sector and extension of transmission and grid network were the top priorities of the government.
“We have a target of increasing the per person power consumption rate to 1,500 KW per hour.” |
