The Nepal Electricity Authority has made it clear that the problem of power supply in areas such as the Sunsari Morang Industrial Corridor of Koshi Province is short-term.

After complaints were received from industrialists that the power supply of industries without information was cut, Kulman Ghising, managing director of the authority, in a meeting with the journalists of the energy sector on Sunday, asked the industrialists to understand the problem and that the problem in that sector would be solved in 10-15 days.

This year, there has been a 30 percent decline in the electricity production of the hydroelectric projects based on the river flow during the dry season due to no snow or rain, the capacity of the transmission line to send more electricity from Dhanusha’s Dhakkebar substation to the east, the Rupni substation of Saptari has been broken, and it is being imported from Bihar through the Kataiya-Kushhawa 132 KV transmission line. Managing Director Ghising mentioned that there was a problem in supplying according to the demand when the electricity was cut from there.

According to Managing Director Ghisingh, although the installed capacity of the hydropower projects built in Taplejung, Panchthar and Ilam is about 200 megawatts, due to lack of snow and rain, only about 30 megawatts of electricity is being generated and is flowing through Kabeli Corridor transmission line. However, since the past couple of days, the power generation from those projects has been increasing, so the industries are now receiving regular power supply, Managing Director Ghising said.

“We have not cut the electricity to the industries in the Sunsari Morang Industrial Corridor, we told them to operate only at lighting load. We have started supplying electricity to the industries in the Kabeli Corridor as the production increases. The current problem is a short-term problem, not a big problem,” he said.

It is estimated that the pre-monsoon will start in 10-15 days, after that the water level in the river will increase and the electricity production will increase, then we will start exporting the surplus electricity consumed internally to India from the first week of May, this year we will export about 1,200 MW We have estimated that it will happen, we have sent a list of projects to the Indian agencies for the approval of the export permit.

Currently, the highest demand for electricity in the system has reached 1,750 megawatts. The average demand is 1,300 MW and the base demand is 1,275 MW. As the heat rises in the Terai, the load of irrigation to irrigate the fields has increased excessively. Electricity demand from Jhapa’s Damak to Anarmani area alone has reached 80 MW.

The authority has operated the Kulekhani reservoir at full capacity 24 hours a day. 500 megawatts on an average has been imported on a daily basis as the domestic production is unable to meet the electricity demand.

Although the installed capacity of hydropower projects has increased this year compared to last year, there has been a 30 percent decline in electricity production in the country due to lack of rain/snow. Apart from the authority’s power plants, the power generation of private sector hydropower plants is only about 14 percent of the installed capacity.

Executive Director Ghising said that the construction of Dhalkebar-Inruwa 400 KV transmission line and Hetaunda-Bharatpur-Bardghat-New Butwal 220 KV transmission line is being completed as soon as possible to prevent problems like the current one in the summer season of next year. He added that after these lines are built, there will be no problem of transmission lines for east and west electricity from Dhalkebar.