Nepal Electricity Authority Executive Director Hitendra Dev Shakya has said that they want assurance of transmission line construction in the upcoming Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). He said that the authority should seek assurance of that as the current problem is more with the transmission line than with electricity generation.

In a meeting with journalists on Saturday, Shakya said that it would be easier if the private sector came on the agenda of expanding the transmission line. ‘The authority will have to emphasize on expanding the transmission line to ensure investment in this sector. There is a problem in expanding the transmission line within Nepal. We believe that there should be a guarantee for the construction of the transmission line,’ he said, ‘If the word ‘take or pay’ had been used when production, consumption and sale were guaranteed, no one would have objected.’

He said that there is no other option for the transmission line. ‘After production, electricity must find a market. There is no market (consumption). There is no storage arrangement, but if electricity is only produced, that becomes a problem. A transmission line is necessary to balance all of that,’ he said, ‘In that case, there is also a transmission line within Nepal and a cross-border transmission line. There is no problem with the cross-border transmission line.’ We are now understanding that it is only a cross-border line rather than a transmission line.’

He said that although a strong transmission line is needed to reach the cross-border line, the NEA is facing problems of forests, people and money for that. ‘Even today, we are not able to export two to three hundred megawatts of electricity to India.’ Because the bottlenecks in Bharatpur-Damauli and Kabeli are small,’ he said, ‘We have not been able to send it because there is no road.’ The transmission line network is also weak.’