The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), which has been imposing 3-hour per day load shedding, will double the load shedding hours from mid February.

Speaking at a press conference in the capital on Sunday, General Manager of NEA, Arjun Karki further informed that the load shedding hours will increase to 7-8 hours in mid-March.

Karki said that people would have to face more power cuts due to high demand and low production during the dry season.

He said the production of electricity was only 190 MW during the dry season whereas the production in the wet season reaches 440 MW.

Karki said, “The demand for electricity is increasing by 10 percent every year, so if we do not think about production of electricity, the energy situation will be something hard to imagine.”

He said Nepal plans to buy 80 MW electricity from India to meet the growing demand of electricity and added that four transmission lines would have to be built to connect with the Indian grid.

Karki also informed that five more hydro-projects that would produce 440 MW are in the pipeline. If all these projects are completed, there will be no power shortage in the country, he said.

The hydropower projects which are in the pipeline are the 30 MW Chamelia, 14 MW Kulekhani III, 27MW Raghughat, 61 MW Upper Trishuli and the 309 MW Upper Tamakoshi.

He also assured to reduce leakage by 19 percent by the following year. In the coming year, the leakage would be controlled from 24.5 per cent to 22 percent.