Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) Celebrated the 35th Anniversary:
Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Barshaman Pun has expressed commitment to supply electricity to 100 percent Nepali households within the next two years. Earlier, the government had set a target of doing this by 2023.
Addressing the 35th-anniversary celebration of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) through a webinar on Monday, he said that the country is now focusing on increasing electricity consumption as it is moving towards self-reliance in electricity.
Minister Pun, who is also the chairperson of the NEA Steering Committee, said that the NEA has been working to attract investment in reservoir-based hydropower and the process of moving ahead with some such big projects has been started.
He said that the current situation of the NEA has changed a lot since 10 years ago, adding that the NEA, which is competing alone, has many challenges ahead.
He said that the tariff has been reduced for eight lakh consumers who consume less than 10 units per month to work in the interest of the consumers and the tariff has been reduced for other consumers as well.
Minister Pun also said that the next five-year Institutional Development Plan 2077 BS has been issued and the work has been taken forward accordingly. He also informed that about Rs. He said that institutional good governance has been established within the NEA and there is an environment for everyone to work in a professional manner. He also informed about the upcoming plan to start the work by establishing provincial offices in seven states in the coming days.
Minister Pun said that the commercial generation of 456 MW from Upper Tamakoshi and the upgrade of 400 KV transmission line of Dhalkebar substation would prove to be a milestone in the history of electricity. He said that necessary discussions have been held to export more products in the coming days.
He said that the private sector has invested more than seven trillion rupees in hydropower. "The NEA buys whatever is produced by the private sector and takes responsibility to increase the consumption by finding a market," he said. So invest with confidence. Secretary at the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Dinesh Kumar Ghimire lauded the achievements of NEA in the last four years and pointed out the need to improve the distribution system in the coming days.
He said that the NEA was facing the challenge of taking more effective steps to curb power leakage, moving towards automation and digitization, and resolving the problem of agreement management.
He also said that measures should be taken to increase the consumption of the product in order to maximize production, manage savings, and give return while protecting the investors' investment.
NEA Chief Executive Director Kulman Ghising, while discussing the achievements made in the last four years, said that the load shedding of four years ago has now ended and the financial situation of not being able to pay the employees has improved a lot. He informed that the leakage of electricity has been reduced to 15.27 percent, the 8614 MW Kulekhani III Hydropower Project has been connected to the transmission line, and electricity has been supplied to 4.218 million customers. Similarly, electricity consumption has reached 6.52 billion units, he said.
Stating that NEA has also achieved remarkable achievements in the financial sector, he informed that NEA has succeeded in earning a net profit of Rs. 11.5 billion before tax last year. He said that NEA has come out of the accumulated deficit with a profit of around Rs 4.86 billion.
He also informed about the plans to move the inter-country electricity trade forward as per the short-term, medium-term, and long-term plans, to restructure the NEA as per the corporate development plan, and to move ahead with the work of automation and digitization.
On the occasion, Member of the National Planning Commission Krishna Prasad Oli suggested that concrete plans should be brought to re-prioritize power projects, electrify conventional irrigation, and increase household consumption. He opined that a portion of the NEA's profit should be set aside for research and development.
Chairman of the Electricity Regulatory Commission Dilli Bahadur Singh warned that the institutional memory could be lost if the NEA is divided. He said that the commission could fix the electricity tariff only once a year and the tariff should also be fixed once for general and industrial use.
Chairman of the Independent Power Producers' Association Krishna Prasad Acharya pointed out the need for NEA to address the problems of the affected producers and make more efforts to increase domestic and industrial consumption.
Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) official trade union coordinator Ramesh Prasad Kandel protested against the disintegration of the authority.
On the same occasion, an award of Rs 25,000 each has been announced for the best performing office and 15 employees. NEA's 200 offices currently have about 12,000 employees.
Similarly, NEA has also given letters of appreciation to Apipower Company, Dolti Power Company, Sagarmatha Hydropower Company, and Mykhola Hydropower Company, which started commercial production by completing the project ahead of schedule.
