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NEA Understating Electricity Demand Forecast
By KTM Metro Reporter
December 18, 2013: speaking at a function held to turn over responsibilities to the newly elected executive committee in Kathmandu on December 15, 2013, newly elected president of Independent Power Producers' Association Nepal (IPPAN) Khadga Bahadur Bista has said that Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has understated the electricity demand forecast in the country to discourage the private power producers, according to the RSS news on ‘gorkhapataonline.com’.
President Bista said that the NEA had been claiming that there would be no power shortage during the wet season following the completion of the Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower Project without basis. "This is just an irrelevant argument that there will be surplus power after the completion of Upper Tamakoshi during the wet season," he said.
He demanded the government to conduct an independent and comprehensive study on the electricity demand forecast jointly with the private sector. “The demand forecast that we will need only 3300 MW of power by 2030 does not convince us”, he said. It is just a preliminary estimate and we would like to work with Water and Energy Commission Secretariat (WECS), National Planning Commission (NPC), Ministry of Energy (MoEN) and Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) to carry out an independent and comprehensive national electricity demand forecast, he added.
He stressed the need for establishing a separate and independent power transmission company solely focusing on the grid expansion and grid operation. "Power grid of India can be seen as an example where generators do not feel discriminated and also wheeling mechanism can be established faster," he said.
The re-structuring of separate departments for 132 KV, 220 KV and 400 KV is a good move of the NEA, he said
However, President Bista criticized the new directives on licensing procedure as undesirable and regressive move, and suggested not to hype the term ‘Jholama Khola’. "Survey period is a time when a developer does his engineering and techno-economic study. They do not earn a dime during the period," he said. "Therefore, it is a waste of time to charge them for anything."
