Daily power shedding in Nepal cut by two hours

Kathmandu, May 14 (IANS) Providing welcome relief to consumers, Nepal's state-owned power monopoly has announced curtailment in load shedding from 12 to 10 hours daily effective Wednesday

The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) Tuesday announced a new load shedding schedule stating that there will be 70-hour power cuts a week, down from 84 hours a week earlier, Xinhua reported.

The decrease in power outage hours has been attributed to the rise in the water level and water flow in most of Nepal's rivers due to the beginning of monsoon and the decrease in energy demand.

Nepal suffers power crisis during the winter season when most of the country's river-based projects generate only 35 percent of their capacity while energy demand doubles at the same time as compared to the wet season.

The south Asian country records growth in energy demand by 100 MW annually.

Though the Himalayan nation can generate an estimated 83,000 MW of commercially-viable electricity from its hydro resources, it has an installed capacity of barely 750 MW. The demand upon the national power grid is of the order of 1,000 MW.