Electricity consumption in Nepal increased threefold in the past eight years.

The electricity consumption surged from 3.72 billion units in fiscal year 2015/16 to 10.02 billion units in 2023/24, according to the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA).  Before FY 2015/16, the country had a negative electricity consumption growth rate. 

The volume of domestic consumption has been the largest in the last fiscal year, followed by industrial uses. The data from the state-owned power utility show that the domestic and industrial consumption totalled to 4.31 and 3.69 billion units, respectively.

Similarly, the per capita electricity consumption, which was 131 units eight years ago, reached 400 units in the last fiscal year.

Nepal used to face up to eight hours of load shedding during the wet season and 14 hours in the dry season eight years ago.

It was only after October 2016 that efforts began to gradually end load shedding, initially for domestic consumers in the Kathmandu Valley.

The initiative was expanded for the domestic consumers across major cities, then to the industries. 

In April 2018, Nepal was declared load-shedding free.

The number of households with access to electricity has gone up from 58% to 99%  in the past eight years. Of them, 97% are connected to the national grid.

The number of electricity consumers of NEA has almost doubled in the past eight years, as it has reached 5.93 million, including those who are served by community electrification, from nearly 3 million eight years ago. 

Managing Director of NEA Kulman Ghising attributed the growth to an extensive electrification campaign in the period.

“The big and small industries are supplied with electricity regularly, more people are using electricity for cooking and the number of EVs has gone up,” Ghising said. “All these have contributed to an increase in electricity consumption.”

 The state-owned power utility has categorised the major cities across the country into 11 clusters to ensure the uninterrupted power supply. It has also prepared the master plan for the transmission and distribution structure to fulfil the supply demand until 2050. 

The peak house power consumption in the last fiscal year increased by 11.34 percentage points compared to that in the previous fiscal year 2022/23, according to NEA. The maximum power demand in the last fiscal year, 2,212 megawatts, was recorded on May 29.

Nepal became the net-exporter of electricity last fiscal year, three years after entering in the energy trade with India, as the exports exceeded imports by over Rs 130 million in the last fiscal year.

The country exported around 1.95 billion units of electricity worth Rs 17.03 billion to India during the wet season last fiscal year while importing 1.9 billion units of electricity worth Rs 16.93 billion from the southern neighbour during the dry season in the same period, according to NEA.

However, the volume of imported electricity in the system has gradually decreased, according to the NEA.

The share of imported electricity in the system remained at 14.68%, which was 8.57 percentage points less than that in the previous fiscal year.

In the meantime, the electricity export has gone up by 44 percentage points.     

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