Hydropower: A Corner Stone for Nepal’s Development

It has been estimated that Nepal has the potential for developing 83,000 MW of hydropower, out of which power plants of various sizes for a total generating capacity of about 42,000 MW are found to be technically feasible.

Even with all this potential, Nepal has not been able to develop its hydro resources effectively. Most of the population is still dependent on traditional sources of fuel. A study has found that our dependency on traditional fuel, especially wood and animal dung, in the year 2003 was 93.2%, of our total energy usage. This is very high when compared to our neighboring countries or other countries in the world. Especially alarming is the fact that our consumption of traditional fuel has been found to increase every year. A study shows that the total consumption of fuel wood in 2005 was 16.7 million tons, whereas the sustainable supply was 9.6 million tons; showing a clear deficit of 7.1 million tons. If the situation continues, there will be no more forests in the country within a few years.

With growth of consumption and advancement in life style of people, import of petroleum products against commodity exports is also increasing every year. It was found to increase from 20% in the year 2000/01 to 55% in the year 2005/06. This percentage is expected to grow and reach between 89% to 125%, depending upon cost of the petroleum products. The table below gives a scenario of desired projection of energy demand and consumption in percentage.

In line with the consumption of energy, the consumption of electricity is also growing. Per-capita consumption of electricity has increased from 17 kWh in 1980 to 91 kWh in 2003, and continues to increase every year.

The demand for energy is far above the present capacity of electricity generation. This has been the case for the past few years, which has resulted infrequent power outages and scheduled load shedding. If the trend in demand continues and only power plants that are presently being constructed are completed, there will be 11 hours load shedding per day in the year 2007-08, 10 hours per day in 2008-2009, 13 hours in 2009-2010, 14 hours in 2010-2011 and 17 hours in the year after.

There are two alternatives to deter this situation: either to import electricity from India or to generate electricity from our own resources.

As mentioned above, we have sufficient water, technical manpower and financial resources to generate electricity. What we need is a clear vision, proper planning and achievable goals to harness the hydro potential. Our water resources, if harnessed properly, could change the scenario of the whole country as oil has impacted the life and economy of the Middle-East countries.

Although there is a high potential of electricity in our country, electricity is expensive compared to the neighboring countries. We are not being able to produce it at economical rate. The main reasons are low plant load factor, high transmission losses, low utilization, high distribution losses, and low efficiency of NEA (Nepal Electric Authority) and lack of policy of Nepal Government.

To get rid of the problem of load shedding and to generate electricity at reasonable rate, we need to adopt a strategy of Awareness, Optimisation, and Planning (AOP). In the short term we need to create awareness among our population, stakeholders, policy makers and people’s representatives. In the medium term we need to see how we can optimize our resources and implement appropriate programs. In the long term we need to have a clear plan of our total energy needs and create a master plan to meet those needs. The long-term plan requires proper planning to meet the domestic demand as well as to export electricity to India. Export projects require proper planning and the modality of partnerships with stakeholders in our neighboring countries.

Proper development of our hydropower resources with the aim of meeting domestic demand and exporting excess energy to neighboring countries will bring lots of positive effects to our economy. It will create good jobs for a lot of people, there will be a growth of domestic industries, it can increase revenue from custom, VAT and taxes, it can help expand our market systems, increase income from export and so on. Export of excess electricity will bring down the increasing trade deficit. It will also encourage hydropower promoters and developers to produce cheap electricity.

Posted on : 2008-01-30 09:30:06

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