No power cuts during Tihar: NEA

By Bishnu Pandeya, Kathmandu, Nov 10: The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has clarified that there will be enough electric supply during the Tihar festival. Tihar, a Hindu festival, will start in the coming week. 

The NEA urged denizens to not hesitate to use electrical appliances as there will be no shortage of electricity supply. 

Suresh Bahadur Bhattarai, Spokesperson at the NEA, the demand for electricity is highest during Laxmi Puja of Tihar.  The peak demand is between 1,200-1,250 megawatts. 

He said, “As the power supply is up to 1,800 megawatts, the demand for electricity in Tihar can be fully met. Therefore, denizens can use electricity or light up their homes with multiple lights full-fledged.”

Even if the demand goes to its highest peak, it will be up to 1,200-1250 megawatts. Currently, the use of electricity is 1,050 megawatts daily.

He said, “NEA wants denizens to consume electricity in full bloom and not to worry about going through electric shortages.” 

He requested to use a quality Miniature Circuit Breaker (MCB) while using the power supply at home, explaining that the electric load goes high, and the MCB keeps shutting down. 

Power cut off for some days

Even though NEA claims that there is no load shedding, the power supply keeps cutting off time and again. Official work keeps getting disturbed and consumer faces difficulty when power goes down unannounced. Consumers are aback and blame NEA for the unannounced power cut. 

Prajwal Man Shrestha, Chief at Ratnapark Distribution Center of NEA said that it is true that the power supply gets cut off for some time as the repair has to be done time and again during cold seasons and Tihar. 

He said, “As the voltage needs to increase in some places for Tihar and cold season, therefore, power supply gets halted. This work will see its completion coming Saturday.”

He said that the demand will be higher in the coming days and because quality equipment must be kept to meet the demand, electricity will be interrupted for some time during the maintenance. 

The power supply has been distributed in the morning time from 7-10 AM for some days. 

Use of electricity without permission 

It has been found that the lights used on roads in the Kathmandu Valley targeting Tihar are used without permission. 

Ratnapark Distribution Center Chief Shrestha said that lights used on the roads are lit without permission. In all these places, lights have been placed without the permission of the authority. 

“One has to take permission to use lights but people are using it without permission. There will be protests from locals if lights are taken so we are helpless in this situation,” he said. 

During monitoring, it was found that electricity was connected from house meters in some places, but most of them were connected illegally. This will increase the probability of fire.