February 10: Fed up with the frequent power cuts without prior notice, the industry operators of Bara-Parsa Industrial Corridor have requested the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) to announce load shedding rather than unannounced power cuts.

Hari Gautam, coordinator of the industry committee under the Birgunj Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that electricity is cut for 8/9 hours every day in the main industrial corridor.

Currently, the production of most of the industries has decreased. Industrialists claim that when the production has dropped to 25 percent, lack of electricity has added to the problem.

Gautam, who is also the vice president of the association, said, “There are problems in the production shift management as well due to power cuts without notice. Instead, it would have been easier if the schedule of load shedding was available.”

The industrialists complain that production has been badly affected due to the frequent power cuts without notice. Iron, cement and furnace-based industries which consume more electricity are affected more.

As compared to the previous years, the domestic production of electricity and import from India has decreased this year, due to which NEA started cutting its supply to the industries.

According to the authority's top officials, the power supply in the industry is reduced by 2/3 hours in order to manage the demand during peak hours. However, industrialists said that electricity is interrupted many times throughout the day.

According to NEA’s data, the demand for electricity in the peak hour is 1,700 megawatts. Authority officials say that domestic production is at most 1,300 MW and 400 MW is being imported from India.

The authority claims that this year, production has decreased by 20 percent compared to last year's winter and imports from India are also affected, creating imbalance in supply and demand.

The authority buys electricity from India and has to pay more during peak hours, so it brings it during off hours. NEA has been importing mostly from Bihar of India and Bara-Parsa Industrial Corridor is supplied from the same line.

NEA spokesperson Suresh Bhattarai says that two thermal plants with a capacity of 1,400 megawatts in Bihar are damaged, so they have not been able to bring in the required amount of electricity.

According to Madhav Rajpal, vice president of the association, there are problems such as wastage of raw materials, reduction in production, burning and deterioration of equipment, and deterioration in the quality of products due to frequent power cuts in the industry.

He commented that a dark age has started in the industry less than four years after the end of load shedding.

Industrialists say that they have been trapped in an all-round crisis since the Covid-19 pandemic and the energy insecurity is hitting them even harder. Gautam complains that due to the recession in the market, the industry is running only for 12 hours, and due to the lack of regular electricity supply, it has not been able to run for even eight hours.