Nepal is expected to experience a power outage because India is prepared to provide only 75 MW of electricity throughout the winter

Due to a shortage in the supply of electricity this winter, Nepal is likely to have power outages every day for at least a few hours. During peak hours in winter, the public or the industrial sector will have to take the brunt of this shortfall.

According to senior officials at the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), two significant hydropower projects—the 144 MW Kaligandaki Hydropower Project and the 456 MW Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower Project—have not yet started producing electricity at full capacity, resulting in a shortage of at least 200 megawatts (MW) of electricity this winter. During the late September catastrophic events brought on by the constant rain, both of these hydropower projects sustained significant damage.

The NEA’s spokesperson, Chandan Kumar Ghosh, told that due to a lack of power generation of their own, India has only agreed to provide 75 MW of the 200 MW of electricity that the NEA has asked.

He stated, “Because India’s power supply, like Nepal’s, is primarily dependent on hydropower generation and river water flow decreases during the winter, India was only able to commit to providing 75 MW of power to Nepal this winter, even when we offered them a high price of INR 10 (Rs 16) per unit of power.” At a rate of Rs 8.4 per unit in the winter and Rs 4.8 per unit in the summer, NEA buys electricity from domestic hydropower projects.

The two hydropower projects would be fully operational in ten days, according to NEA Managing Director Kulman Ghising, who made this assertion during a program in the capital on Friday. NEA officials, however, are skeptical that the projects would return to full-fledged functioning in the allotted period.

According to an NEA official, “it appears unlikely that both the projects will resume full-fledged operation due to the significant damage to the infrastructure.” “We will still experience a power supply shortage even if they partially resume operations.”

Due to the power supply shortage, NEA must decide whether to cut off power to the general public or to industries during the hours of 5 to 7 p.m., when consumption is at its highest. Industrialists have already begun to voice their dissatisfaction with the current NEA restrictions on the electricity supply to industries during peak hours.

Ghising, the managing director of NEA, even implied on Friday that the businessmen impacted by the power loss had begun unfounded rumors that NEA would soon implement load shedding.

Due mostly to their own production cycles and power demands, NEA officials have indicated that industries, rather than the general public, will probably bear the brunt of the power supply crisis.

On Friday, Ghosh reiterated Ghising’s assertion that it would be reasonable for the industries that frequently fall behind on their electricity payments to be the ones affected by the power outage rather than the broader public.

Ghosh told, “In this case, it would make sense to let the consumers with arrears bear the brunt of shortage in supply. On the one hand, we have the general public, which pays around Rs 11 per unit consumed and makes regular payments, while on the other hand, we have industries, which pay Rs 4.75 per unit power consumed and fail to make regular payments.”

Ghosh, the spokesperson, asserted that business owners should concentrate on manufacturing in the summer, when power supplies are copious, and begin to view electricity as a raw commodity that is only readily available in the summer.

Ghosh told that one of the issues facing the industrial sector is that they boost production in the winter when other raw materials are readily available. In doing so, they take power supply for granted and fail to view electricity as a finite raw material.

Ghosh went on to say that raising the price on electricity usage in the winter and lowering it in the summer could encourage businesses to shift their production priorities away from the winter. According to Ghosh, “If we raise the tariff a few rupees in the winter and lower it in the summer, the industries will be encouraged to boost production in the summer.”