Power-starved Nepal has declared an "energy emergency" to tide over the acute electricity shortage and unveiled plans to address the energy crisis within two years by importing 50 per cent of its requirements from India.
"The decision to announce energy emergency is aimed at reducing the woes of energy crisis," Energy Minister Top Bahadur Rayamajhi said today.
The Himalayan country is currently facing 13 hours of outage daily. This is the third time, the government has declared energy emergency in the last eight years, The Kathmandu Post reported.
Nepal yesterday formulated a plan of action aimed at ending the power shortage in the country within a couple of years by harnessing solar and wind energy apart from stepping up hydro-electricity generation.
The plan says more than 50 per cent of the country's electricity requirement would be fulfilled through imports from India in the first year, the report said.
If the government's plan is anything to go by, the country will be free from load shedding in next two years as "it will have 1,850 MW of electricity flowing through the national grid", it said.
The ministry of energy was directed to prepare concrete action plan for removing the general power shortage within a year and absolute power shortage within two years.
As per the plan, power outage will be ended within a year by developing solar and wind energy as well. However, within next two years, the load shedding will be solved through generating hydro-electricity.
The current electricity demand in Nepal stands at 1,400 MW and the country has about 850 MW of electricity during the peak season.
However, the current hydropower generation is little more than 300 MW, though Nepal has the potential to generate 83,000 MW of hydro electricity.
