NEA supplying electricity to flood hit Mugu and Humla temporarily by using diesel plants

Kathmandu : Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) on Thursday said it has made alternative arrangements for power supply in Mugu and Humla districts, which sustained massive damages in their small hydropower plants due to heavy rains last October.

Issuing a press statement, NEA has said as electricity supply was not possible in the area without rebuilding and repairing the power houses damaged by the landslides. According to the authority, it will produce electricity through diesel generators and supply it to Mugu and Humla for the time being.

The floods and landslides triggered by heavy rains on October 5-11 have caused great damage to the canals of the 400 kW Gamgadh in Mugu and the 500 kW Heldung-small hydroelectric power plants in Humla. After the canal was damaged and power generation interrupted, Mugu and Humla districts were left without electricity. Due to geographical difficulties, electricity from the national transmission line has not reached these two districts. The damaged power houses are being reconstructed.

The NEA has taken a 300 kVA generator in Kalikot to Mugu for power supply in Gamgadhi and surrounding areas. 125 and 100 kV generators have been arranged for power supply in Simikot and surrounding areas of Humla. The authority has 3,100 customers in Mugu and 2,300 customers in Humla.

The generators were taken from Kulekhani Power Station and New Butwal Substation to Simikot. The authority transported those generators by road and took them to Gamgadhi in Mugu. In Humla, which is not yet connected to the national road, the generator and the diesel needed for that have been transported to Simikot by helicopter from Gamgadhi.

A team including NEA’s Managing Director Kulman Ghising, head of NEA’s distribution and customer service directorate, Manoj Silwal, chief of NEA’s Karnali provincial office, Shambhu Kusiyat Yadav reached Simikot with generators on Wednesday. The team paid onsite visit to the reconstruction area and instructed the concerned to complete the reconstruction work within a month.

NEA Managing Director Ghising said that since the reconstruction of the small power plants is going on and it will take at least one more month for completion.

According to the NEA, the cost of generating electricity through generators is more than Rs 80 per unit, but most of the customers here pay a minimum of Rs 30 each. The cost of the electricity consumed here is more than twice as expensive as the investment, but since it is the responsibility of the state to provide light to everyone's homes, we are providing electricity as a basic need without looking at profit or loss. "We have made arrangements for supplies by transporting goods through helicopters," Ghising said. 

Meanwhile, Ghising said that the electrification of the districts of Karnali Province is being given high priority. According to him, the authority has set up solar power plants of at least 2 MW each in Kalikot, Jumla, Humla, Mugu and Dolpa by taking concessional loans of about US $ 220 million from the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) and the European Investment Bank (EIB).