On Power Theft

Power theft is critically proving to be one of the unsuccessfully addressed acute concerns of the Nepalese electricity sector. Though the actual estimate on Nepalese non-technical losses is unknown; an overall system losses of 26.58% in 2010 indicates that electricity theft is being gravely practiced in the country after accounting for inefficiencies in system use, technical transmission and distribution losses from grids inefficiency and gratis. At one end, not all people are willing to pay for energy usage and connection charges despite their ability to pay. On the other end, electricity theft has also become institutionalized in the political and economic governance settings providing the theft-culture more robustness and longevity.Power theft has resulted in significant lost earnings for NEA creating a fund-crunch for investment in the power system while also necessitating capacity expansion in generation to cope with power losses. Electricity theft is identified as one of the fundamental drivers behind Nepal Electricity Authority’s (NEA) whooping financial loss of Rs. 5350.92 million incurred in 2010. Yet, the practice towards electricity theft control remains largely apathetic in the country.......Theft practice thereby creates negative externalities for other responsible electricity users who actually pay for their power usage and connections.
Please follow the link below to read the editor's version of the article published in The Kathmandu Post:http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2011/01/18/oped/a-noble-opportunity/217398.html

Silver Jubilee of Nepal Electricty Authority (NEA)

Nepal’s power sector is currently battling out the toughest challenge ever-encountered in the last two and a half decades of its electricity sector reforms experience. The sector is faced with an upheaval task of electrifying the nation under twin scenarios of escalating electricity demand and growing political instability. Unlike others, I preferred to label them as ‘scenarios’ than ‘problems’ because the actual problem in my view has been the immature engineering of the sector that is proving unable to cope the long-foreseen pressures of soaring demand and vagabond politics over the years.After the establishment of the vertically-integrated Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) in 1984; several policies and acts followed suit to provide appropriate institutional framework for implementing electricity reforms. The Hydropower Development Policy of 1992 was supported by the Water Resources Act of 1992, the Foreign Investment and Technology Transfer Act 1992, the Electricity Act 1992 and the Industrial Enterprises Act. The Hydropower Policy of 1992 was subsequently amended in 2001 and led to the formulation of the Community Electricity Distribution Bye Laws in 2003. All the above mentioned acts and policies in paper addresses the acute concerns revolving the Nepalese power sector such as capacity expansion, imports reduction, private participation, losses reduction, rural electrification, environmental protection, etc. Yet, the practice has unusually departed from theory while the empirical evidence from two decades of electricity reforms has starkly defied the logic of reforms in Nepal.
To read the rest of the article published in 'The Kathmandu Post', please follow the link:http://www.ekantipur.com/the-kathmandu-post/2011/01/04/oped/a-silver-jubilee-to-mourn/216860/