Inauguration of EV Fast Charging Station at NEA head office

A fast charging station for electric vehicles built by the Nepal Electricity Authority has been inaugurated. Honorable Pampha Bhusal, Minister of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, on Tuesday inaugurated the state-of-the-art fast charging station built at Ratnapark, the authority’s head office. Minister Bhusal said that the operation of the charging station is a revolution in the energy sector. Internally, electricity consumption has increased by about 22 percent, by using electricity produced from water from our own sources, the money spent on importing petroleum remains in our country, it addresses the trade deficit and helps in building a self-sufficient economy, he said.

Mentioning that the use of electric vehicles was unthinkable during load shedding in the past, Kulman Ghising, Managing Director of the Authority, said that it is a big revolution to stop load shedding and to increase electricity consumption internally.

“To encourage the use of electric vehicles, a concessional fee has been set for charging stations, but there have been complaints that charging stations operated by the private sector charge more than the prescribed fee and electric vehicles charge the same fare as petroleum-powered vehicles,” Ghising said. “We are monitoring this, not to charge more than the specified fee and I request to give a concession on the rent as it is charged at a cheap rate.”

Under the electric vehicle charging infrastructure development project, the authority is currently constructing charging stations for quick charging of electric vehicles at 51 locations including main highways, bus parks and big cities in seven provinces. Among them, 26 big buses, micros, trucks, pickups and cars and 25 small/big cars can be charged.

A memorandum of understanding has been signed for the construction of charging stations at suitable locations of the proposed petrol pumps and offices operated by the Nepal Police and Armed Police Forces. Charging will cost an average of 70 paisa per km for cars, 80 paisa for SUVs, 90 paisa for microbuses and 120 paisa per kilometer for buses. Depending on the battery capacity of the vehicles available in Nepal, the charge can be completed in at least half an hour to 1 hour.

It is intended to increase the consumption of electricity internally, reduce the consumption of petroleum products and reduce imports, and establish a charging station for the development of an environment-friendly transportation system through the use of electric vehicles.

Each charging station has a 142 kW charger, a 50 kVA transformer for power supply, and an online charging system. Fast charging 60-60 kilowatt DC and 22 kilowatt AC chargers will be placed at the charging station. With this, three vehicles including big buses can be charged simultaneously.

A contract was signed with Wangwang Digital Energy Corporation Ltd., Jiangsu, China for 37 crore 79 lakh 55 thousand rupees (excluding tax) for charging station construction, supply, installation, testing, operation and maintenance. The charging station was built with the help of the Asian Development Bank.

The maintenance of the charging station will be done by the contractor company for 5 years of its operation. The software of the charging station will be kept in the authority’s data center so that more than 300 chargers can be served. All 51 stations will be controlled from Kathmandu. After charging the vehicle, the customer can pay the bill through the QR code and mobile app.

Locations of Charging Stations: