Kathmandu. The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has to bear a huge financial burden as it has not been able to generate electricity as per the plan. The NEA is in the process of signing power purchase agreements with 253 independent power producers of 16,027 MW capacity.

According to NEA, there was a loss of about 268.8 million kilowatt hours of electricity as the power producers failed to meet the target.

NEA has to import additional electricity from a friendly country to meet the shortfall in production. Due to this, NEA has an estimated additional cost of Rs 1.22 billion.

Dependence on imported electricity has increased as domestic production decreases, especially during the dry months. On the other hand, run-off and river hydropower projects have been facing the problem of wastage of electricity due to excessive production during the rainy season.