Nepal govt plans to end power shortage within 2 years

Kathmandu: Nepal government on Thursday formulated plan of action aimed at ending the power shortage in the country within a couple of years by harnessing solar and wind energy apart from stepping up hydro-electricity generation.

The meeting of the council of ministers endorsed the action plan on ending the energy crisis period within two years, according to cabinet sources.

The meeting held at the residence of Prime Minister K P Oli directed the ministry of energy to prepare concrete action plan for removing the general power shortage within a year and absolute power shortage within two years.

National Energy Crisis Reduction and Electricity Development Decade was declared starting this year, said government spokesperson Sherdhan Rai.

As per the plan, power outage will be ended within a year by developing solar and wind energy as well.

However, within next two years, the load shedding will be solved through generating hydro-electricity. The current electricity demand in Nepal stands at 1,400 MW and the country has about 850 MW of electricity during the peak season.

Nepal recently marked 105 years of construction of the first hydropower plant in the country and it is probably the first nation in Asia to produce hydropower.

However, the current hydropower generation is little more than 300 MW, though Nepal has the potential to generate 83,000 MW of hydro electricity.