Ministry of Energy and Nepal Electricity Authority mismatched demand forecast

Kathmandu March 9- There seems to be a huge mismatch in demand forecast of electricity made by the Ministry of Energy (MoE) and Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA). While NEA has projected that the demand for electricity will hover around 3,200 megawatts in 10 years’ time, the MoE says the current demand stands at around 3,000 MW.

In the ‘Concept Paper on National Energy Crisis Prevention and Electricity Development Decade, 2016’, which was approved by the Cabinet recently, the MoE has said that the national goal of making electricity accessible to each Nepali household can be achieved by generating 10,000 MW of electricity in the next 10 years. The government has envisaged complete electrification in the country by then.

In the concept paper, the MoE has estimated that the current load demand is more than double NEA’s projection of 1,423 MW by the end of the current fiscal. The MoE has come up with higher figures considering that the country would see a boost in construction/expansion of electricity-based industries, structures if power supply was smooth.