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Declining economy and frightening load-shedding
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By Nirjal Dhungana
The country\'s economy is being increasingly debilitated by prolonged load-shedding hours
Production of industries in the Birgunj-Pathlaiya Industrial Corridor has been hit hard by the 11-hour load-shedding imposed by the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA).
Production in the corridor nosedived by 80 percent compared to the past due to alarming load-shedding. There are over 200 small and big industries in the corridor.
Industrialists are suffering a loss of over Rs. 100 million in a day due to this crisis.
During the last fiscal year, load-shedding caused loss of a whopping Rs 7000 crore in production capacity. Likewise, the year saw a transaction of inverters and batteries worth Rs 3 billion.
No surprise, it also cast light on the already fragile economy.
However, Gyanendra Lal Pradhan, a hydropower expert, thinks there is still a huge potential for the world\'s second largest country in water resource to exploit the same to completely eradicate the perennial power deficit.
Pradhan also prescribed the government to pencil a fine tuned separate policy to permanently tide over the reoccurring energy crisis.
"The demand of electricity in the dry season stands at 1000 MW," he says adding, "Similarly, the production of 2000 MW is required for the next 5 years and for the coming 20 years, the country demands 5000 MW of electricity."
During the dry season, the production of electricity plummets by more than a half in comparison to the rainy season.
Currently, some 11 hydropower projects with capacity to generate 1200 MW within 5 years are under construction.
He also believes that the construction of two projects, the 1000-MW Kaligandaki and the 127 MW Damauli Seti should be commenced at the soonest in order to resolve the problem of load-shedding.
Different hydro-power promoters have already acquired licenses for various projects along the Kaligandaki.
Pradhan said that the country had begun to receive some US $ 10 billion for the construction of many hydro projects that include, Upper Karnali (900 MW), Arun (900 MW), Tamakoshi Third (800 MW), Upper Marsyandri (600 MW), Kaligandaki Third (250 MW) and Likhu (120 MW), among others.
According to hydro experts, the storage of huge volumes of water during the monsoon season with dams built in open and flat areas in the foothills of the high Himalayas, with the water to be used during the dry season by hydro-power projects located in the lower regions can also address the acute power shortage.
The country faces acute power shortage mainly in the dry season as all the hydro-power projects except Kulekhani are built on the run-of-river model.
With the help of such storage, even the existing run-of-river projects can perform like storage projects to some extent, the experts argue.
In the light of this backdrop, it can be said that the prudent approach to harness the immense water potential can shield the country from a devastating darkness.
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