Kathmandu: In a bid to increase domestic consumption of electricity, Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has consented to provide 10 industrial units with 150.5 MW of electricity.

According to the NEA, it has approved the aforementioned amount of loads to 10 production plants in the first four month of the current fiscal year. Most of these factories are related to steel and cement manufacturing.

Based on the demand forwarded by the industrial units, the state-owned power utility approved Arati Strips, Swastik Rolling Mills, Hulas Wire, Ashok Steel, Narayani Strips, Maruti Cement, Huaxin Cement, Deurali Janta Pharmaceutical, Upper Trishuli-1, Hongshi Shivam Cement and Arghakhanchi Cement with the electricity supply.

In addition, study of another seven industrial plants to provide 111 MW of electricity is in the final stage, according to NEA officials. Similarly, the authority has started a Grid Impact Study (GIS), a computer based assessment system, to provide 98.8 MW of electricity to other five industries. GIS analyses capacity of the existing transmission and electricity distribution systems in the areas where the factories concerned are located.

NEA records show that around 500 MW of electricity has been going to waste due to low domestic consumption and lack of transmission lines. Provided NEA approved electricity supply to the industries in pipeline, additional around 360 MW of electricity will be consumed by these 22 industrial plants.

Last week, NEA Managing Director Kulman Ghising announced plans to provide electricity to the industries as per their demand. Ghising also carried out a field visit to a number of production plants to find out the status of the electricity distribution there.