Himal Press 
KATHMANDU: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has made significant progress in controlling electricity leakage.
According to the NEA, electricity leakage towards distribution dropped to 7.49% in the period between mid-July and mid-November. This represents a decrease of 1.74 percentage points compared to the same period last year.
Electricity leakage was 9.23% in mid-November last year. The overall leakage was 10.86% in 2021/22. Out of the 4.14 billion units of electricity available in the grid, 310.7 million went to leakage.
Similarly, the leakage towards transmission lines stands at 4.56% till mid-November. The overall leakage for both transmission and distribution stands at 12.5%.
In mid-June, the overall leakage was 15.38%.
The majority of power leakage occurs on the distribution side. The NEA has set a target of reducing the overall leakage to 14% and distribution leakage to 8.5% in the current fiscal year.
According to Kulman Ghising, executive director of the NEA, the leakage towards distribution was nearly 22% seven years ago. He added that the entire team of NEA was working to bring down the leakage to less than the target by making the leakage control measures more effective.
Out of the distribution centers under the NEA’s seven provincial offices and two provincial division offices, the Madhes Province Office has the highest electricity leakage. The total leakage of 23 distribution centers under Janakpur Province Office is 12.80% till mid-November. This is slightly lower than last year’s 12.97%. The Malangwa Distribution Center in Sarlahi has the highest leakage of 44.83%, which is slightly higher than last year’s 43.82%.
