Load shedding hours to increase to six hours a day from next week

Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) is increasing the load shedding hours to six hours from the existing four hours a day, from next week.

NEA has said, it is forced to increase the load shedding hours as the production is decreasing due to reducing water-levels in the rivers, while the consumption is increasing due to the winter season.

NEA's executive director Jivendra Jha said, a new schedule for load shedding will be released next week.

NEA sources said, the water level in Kulekhani hydro power project, the country's only reservoir based hydro-project has been saved due to the three-day strike called by the Unified CPN (Maoist) when most of the industries remained closed. The level of water in Kulekhani at present is more than 1500 meters.

Meanwhile, load shedding hours later this year is likely to be as long as it was last year as India has agreed to give only 30 MW power in commercial rate as opposed to 60 MW requested by Nepal.

Nepal is importing another 80 MW at a subsidized rate.

Source: http://www.ippan.org.np/enews1041209.asp