Wednesday, December 26

Background Study of Nepal


Per capita energy consumption is one of the indicators of the economic development of a nation. Economic activities expanding with the availability of adequate energy at a reasonable price. Surplus energy encourage individuals to initiate and expand income generation activities boosting economic development of the  country. So the role of energy in the overall development of a nation can hardly be overemphasized.

      Nepal's energy source consists of a combination of both traditional and commercial energy. Over two third of the total population meet their energy demand through traditional sources such as fuel wood, animal waste and agriculture residue. Consumption of commercial energy in the form of electricity, coal and petroleum products are also increasing. But Nepal has to import coal and petroleum products for energy need.

       Nepal has a theoretical potential to generate 83000MW of hydropower, economically feasible potential is about 42000MW. However, only a small fraction of this power potential has was installed in Pharping (500KW) in 1911, which was later followed by installation of Sundarijal Hydropower Plant (1350KW). Due to Nepal's poor performance in  the power sector development only 15% of electricity is a little over 25KWh, which represent lower in Asia.
           
        At present, the country is experiencing load shedding and about 7000 MW of electricity should be generated to meet the demand by the year 2027 AD.Since,1990,less & less grant aid and loan are forthcoming in the energy sector. The government, from its scare resource, and tight control of donor agencies, has not been able to sustain the power development program.  
      
   In the process of making effort to meet the power demand, NEA identified Lower Modi River as a feasible site for generating hydropower $ estimated to generate 10MW at an expensive of Ruppes One Arab and Sixty Four Crore. The task of generating hydropower, from Lower Modi River has given to a private sector company on Hydropower Policy of 1992(ICIMOD,2006).

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