KATHMANDU, March 13: The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has agreed to supply 35 MW of electricity to Ambe Steels industry in the Nepalgunj area of Banke within a month. NEA is currently supplying about 8 MW of electricity to the steel factory.
The factory has demanded an additional 27 MW of electricity for capacity expansion. NEA is going to supply 35 MW of electricity to Ambe Steels with an additional 27 MW within a month after completing the construction of all the necessary structures to supply electricity to the steel plant.
The construction of a 33 kV double circuit transmission line from the Kohalpur substation has reached the final stage to supply electricity to the factory. The factory has also finalized the construction of a substation on its premises and capacity expansion of the factory to get additional power supply.
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A team led by NEA Managing Director Kulman Ghising visited the site on Saturday and discussed the electrical infrastructure to be constructed to supply electricity to the industrial plants operating in Nepalgunj and Kohalpur industrial areas and which may open in the coming days.
The team visiting Ambe Steels, which consumes the most electricity in the Nepalgunj area, has requested the management of the factory to complete all the preparatory work within a month.
"We are supplying the required amount of electricity to the industries to increase the power consumption. In order to increase the power consumption in the industrial corridor, new infrastructure has been constructed and the existing structures have been strengthened and upgraded," said Managing Director Ghising. "Ambe Steels seems to be in the final stage of building its infrastructure for power connections. The power supply can be provided as soon as the factory completes the necessary preparations. We have no problem."
He said that the process of construction of a 132 kV substation has been taken forward as other industrial units will be opened in the area operated by Ambe Steels and the area is being developed as an industrial corridor. Land acquisition has been started for the construction of a substation. Concessional loan agreement has been signed with the Asian Development Bank.
"If we could not sell the surplus electricity to India to increase consumption and consume it internally, what would happen if we had to waste around 500 megawatts of electricity daily in the rainy season? Therefore, we should focus on increasing power consumption in big industrial units,” said Ghising. "For this, we have planned to build infrastructures for power supply in the industrial corridors."
