Nepal has been witnessing severe power crisis around winter and dry season every year. The pattern over the years shows that there is no easy and quick way to solve the perennial problem of power outage. Putting the political rhetoric and official preaching aside, Nepali people will do well to brace for power cuts of up to 16 hours a day as the winter deepens. This situation will continue at least for another five years, given the pace of work needed to complete projects like Upper Tamakosi. The annual demand of electricity is increasing by 7-9 percent or 100 MW yearly. Yet the people don’t see an immediate prospect for a respite from the power cuts at odd and long hours. The only solution will be to construct a few big projects by securing huge investments. Since Nepal’s private sector does not have resources, the government needs to mobilize development partners as well as the multilateral sector. In this context, the recently concluded, two-day Nepal Energy Investors Forum provided a venue for all stakeholders to come together and discuss the issue and find out ways to avert Nepal’s prolonged energy crisis. Asian Development Bank has played a very crucial role following the debacle of Arun III and rescued Nepal’s power sector from facing a more severe crisis. By agreeing to invest in Kaligandaki A Hydropower project, Asian Development Bank helped to avert a major crisis. As Nepal has been making efforts to reduce the severe power cuts, we expect that Nepal Energy Investors Forum provided opportunities to deal with the crisis. This issue of the New Spotlight chose to highlight Nepal’s power crisis in its cover story.
As Nepalese are celebrating Tihar and Chhat, we would like to wish all our readers, patrons and well wishers Happy Dipawali.
Keshab Poudel
Editor