Gopen Rai
What a difference one man makes. In May, Som Prasad Pahadi appeared on the front page of Nepali Times (above, inset) as he juggled with the load-shedding schedule at the Lagankhel Substation as the capital reeled under 12 hour daily power cuts. On Thursday, Narendra Adhikari (pictured) was at the same spot, but didn’t have much to do since there is no more power to cut.
Kulman Ghising has become a celebrity overnight for removing load-shedding in Kathmandu Valley, and the question in everyone’s lips is: will there be electricity rationing this winter?
Ghising says he will manage generation and distribution in such a way that there will be no load-shedding. His plan is to further cut peak hour supply to big consumers so there will be enough power for everyone.
NEA Spokesperson Prabal Adhikari says the utility is working to increase Indian power import from 80MW to 220MW for the dry season. He said the capital will get 24 hours of electric supply even if it means cutting more hours from industries.
Adhikari explains: “If we can make timely imports and internal generation as planned, we will just have a shortfall of 100MW in the dry season compared to the situation now.”
Kulman Ghising was lucky to be at the right place at the right time and benefited from a convergence of circumstances. More than 70MW of hydropower has recently been connected to the national grid, and NEA plans to add up to 103MW from new hydropower projects like Khani Khola, Upper Madi, Upper Marsyangdi and others by end-December.
A late monsoon means rivers are still flowing above normal, and this has maintained maximum generation levels from run-of-river schemes. Thus, supply is at an all-time high just as demand has fallen steadily because of household and office photovoltaics.
All Ghising had to do since taking over at NEA was to manage distribution by cutting a few hours of peak hour power to various large consumers who had been paying off NEA officials, and spread that to households across the country.
However, much as Ghising would like to deliver uninterrupted power, the supply-demand arithmetic doesn’t add up. The current electricity deficit is 450MW nationwide and it will rise to 535MW in the upcoming dry season.
Sipping tea by his desk at the Lagankhel Substation, in-charge Suprabhat Bhandari said: “The operation work load has gone down by almost 90 per cent since we don’t have to keep track of the load shedding schedule anymore.”