Electricity leakage down to 14.45 per cent

Electricity leakage dropped down to 14.45 per cent in the first six months of the current fiscal year.

According to Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), it has managed to reduce the electricity leakage of the system from 17.18 per cent in the last fiscal year by 2.73 percentage points in the first six months of the current fiscal year 2021-22 to 14.45 per cent.

It became possible through regular campaigning for power supply and control of technical and non-technical leakages, the sole power authority claimed, adding that the leakage has dropped to 14.45 per cent in the first six months of the current fiscal year, including power transmission and distribution. 

NEA also claimed that most of the leakage in the system is taking place during distribution. "The leakage during distribution in the first six months period is 9.23 per cent," the NEA claimed, adding that it has set a target of reducing electricity leakage to 15.5 per cent in the current fiscal year.

The drop in leakage has also helped increase profit of the NEA. According to NEA managing director Kulman Ghising, "NEA's profit has increased because of increase in revenue due to the reduction in leakage."

The leakage control campaign, according to him, has been carried out effectively, increasing the capacity of the substations, adding conductors, replacing overloaded transformers, and encouraging the use of three-phase meters.

The authority will take strict action against those who steal by bypassing and hooking up the meter, and those who resell the meters, replace the meter and tamper with the meter in order to control the non-technical leakage, he added.