After the elimination of load-shedding in the country and also due to regular supply of electricity, the per capita energy consumption of the country has increased to 267 per units a year on average as per a review of the first six months of the current fiscal year.

Three years ago, the per capita energy consumption was at 150 units per person annually.

As per half-year review report of the current fiscal year released by the Ministry of Finance, per capita energy consumption has increased by 22 units per person. In the last fiscal year, per capita electricity consumption stood at 245 units.

With the management of regular power supply, production capacity of industries has also increased in recent years and economic growth of the country is encouraging. The government has taken a policy to increase per capita energy consumption in the coming years.

To implement the government’s policy to raise electricity consumption, Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has initiated a programme to encourage use of electric stoves (inductions) in households and open charging stations to promote electric vehicles to increase electricity consumption. NEA is at present strengthening, upgrading and expanding its infrastructure to accommodate the load.

The government aims to provide electricity to every household within 2022 and increase electricity consumption to 700 units per person within four years.

As per NEA, out of 751 local governments, 222 have achieved 90 per cent electrification. According to the NEA data, which was made public after conducting a detailed study of the local level, 117 local levels have yet to achieve five per cent electrification.

According to the Finance Ministry, NEA has been able to add 200,000 households to its network and electricity has now reached nearly 4.7 million households through expansion, upgradation and strengthening of the distribution line in the first six months of the current fiscal year. Till last fiscal year, NEA was able to electrify 4.5 million households.