Nepal Electricity Authority is planning to import around 35 megawatts of additional electricity from India to limit load-shedding hours as energy production here starts to fall with the advent of the winter season.

“We will start importing around 30 to 35 MW of additional electricity by the end of January if everything goes according to plan,” said Bhuwan Chhetri, chief of the Load Dispatch Centre at NEA.

Currently, the state-owned utility company is importing around 230 MW of electricity from India, up 21 per cent from last year’s 190 MW. Despite increased supply from India, NEA increased load-shedding hours from eight to 10 per day in the Kathmandu Valley beginning yesterday due to rising electricity consumption and falling production reports The Himalayan Times.

Electricity demand, which hovered around 17-17.20 million units per day till last fiscal year, shot up to around 18-18.20 million units per day this year. To meet this demand, the country needs plants that can generate over 1,300 MW of electricity. But NEA produces around 478 MW of electricity through a number of hydroelectric projects that it owns, around 53.4 MW through thermal plants and around 100 KW from solar plants. Also, hydro projects owned by the private sector generate around 256 MW of electricity and other small hydel plants produce around 4.6 MW of electricity.