KATHMANDU, APR 03 – Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) on Thursday slashed load-shedding by around an hour a day, effective from Saturday.
With the latest revision, load-shedding will decrease to 59 hours a week from the existing 67 hours, according to NEA. Household consumers will have to face power outage of seven hours once a week, eight hours twice a week, and nine hours for four days a week. On an average, there will be eight and half hours load-shedding every day.
Bhuvan Chhetri, chief of NEA’s load dispatch department, said the decision to reduce outage hours was based on the rise in the level of water level at the Kulekhani Hydropower Project. As of Thursday, water level at Kulekhani stood at 1,526 metres above the sea level. “Normally water volume at Kulekhani reservoir remains at 1,485 metres,” Chhetri said, adding load-shedding would go down further in the days to come.
The arrival of summer season marks an increase in the flow of water in rivers due to the melt down of Himalaya snow, increasing the output of run-of-the-river type project.
The Kulekhani reservoir, 7km long and 300 metres wide, was built to hold 1,530 metres of water as up to 1,484 metres of water can be used to generate electricity. NEA generates 60MW and 62MW electricity from Kulekhani I and II, respectively.
Source : eKantipur Online
