Nepal’s state-run power monopoly increased daily power cuts to 16 hours from 12 hours yesterday because growing demand for electricity in winter was putting further strain on generating capacity, an official said.
The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has been imposing 12 hours of daily power cuts, saying generation of hydro-electric power had fallen because of the slow melting of mountain snows.
Senior NEA official Sher Singh Bhat said an earlier plan to increase power outages from next month was brought forward because river levels were falling “very fast” and power demand was rising in winter.
NEA generates 300 megawatts (MW) of electricity against demand of 800 MW, which is rising by 10 percent every year.
“The situation could ease a little bit in the summer, but the power cuts are here to stay for another five to six years,” he said, adding no major hydro-electric plant was set to start generating power before then.
Nepal’s ruling Maoists say the crisis was due to the failure of previous governments to build new power stations on time.
No major hydroelectric plants were built in the past decade because of poor security during a decade-long Maoist insurgency, which ended two years ago.
During the revolt, insurgents attacked infrastructure such as power facilities, scaring investors away.
Industries and businesses say the power cuts have reduced output and will hit economic growth as industries were running on less than 20 percent of their capacity.
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
Four people jailed in the landmark Hong Kong national security trial of "47 democrats" accused of conspiracy to commit subversion were freed today after more than four years behind bars, the second group to be released in a month. Among those freed was long-time political and LGBTQ activist Jimmy Sham (岑子杰), who also led one of Hong Kong’s largest pro-democracy groups, the Civil Human Rights Front, which disbanded in 2021. "Let me spend some time with my family," Sham said after arriving at his home in the Kowloon district of Jordan. "I don’t know how to plan ahead because, to me, it feels
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000
North Korea has detained another official over last week’s failed launch of a warship, which damaged the naval destroyer, state media reported yesterday. Pyongyang announced “a serious accident” at Wednesday last week’s launch ceremony, which crushed sections of the bottom of the new destroyer. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the mishap a “criminal act caused by absolute carelessness.” Ri Hyong-son, vice department director of the Munitions Industry Department of the Party Central Committee, was summoned and detained on Sunday, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported. He was “greatly responsible for the occurrence of the serious accident,” it said. Ri is the fourth person
RSS