Skip to main content

NEA to promote electric vehicles

Betting on the surplus power in the system by the end of next year along with completion of the 456-megawatt Upper Tamakoshi Hydroelectric Project (UTHEP), Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) is taking the initiative to promote electric vehicles for competent management of the surplus power.The power utility has called a tender to instal charging stations in different places of major cities to encourage people to shift to electric vehicles. According to the power utility, a charging station in the NEA office premises will be installed shortly and the authority is also mulling over making electric vehicles mandatory for top posts from director level to spread the message that electric vehicles should be given due priority.
According to Prabal Adhikari, spokesperson for NEA, the power utility is planning to first instal charging stations in Kathmandu Valley and major cities and gradually expand to other areas after the flow of electric vehicles increases. Moreover, the power utility has said that it will also encourage use of induction heaters, other electric home appliances to increase consumption of generated power.
As per Adhikari, the country has to set a long-term vision to replace the use of liquefied petroleum gas and substantially reduce the consumption of petroleum products. The power utility has said that it will set up high-capacity batteries to consume the surplus power during off-peak hours and supply the power to manage the load of peak hours. This is because increased use of inductions and other electric equipmentwill raise the demand in peak hours in the future.
The government has also reduced customs tariff on the import of electric vehicles through the fiscal budget of 2016-17. Customs tariff of big electric vehicles (bus, minibus) normally used as public transportation had been slashed to one per cent (of the total cost) from 30 per cent earlier. Similarly, electric four-wheelers used for individual purpose like jeeps, cars and vans need to pay only 10 per cent customs tariff against 30 per cent in previous years.
As per electric vehicle traders, reduction in customs duty is not enough to promote electric vehicles. The Electric Vehicles Association of Nepal (EVAN) has sought infrastructure — charging stations — and the route permit from the Department of Transport Management (DoTM)for promotion of electric vehicles.
As per EV traders, electric cars that are in use in the country travel 120 kilometres on a single charge and electric scooters travel around 60 to 80 km on one charge. Mostly REVA (Indian) and NEVI (Chinese) cars are popular EVs in Nepal.
As per EVAN, there are around 300 electric cars and 2,000 electric scooters in use at present. However, electric vehicles that can travel 400 km to 500 km on a single charge have already been developed and put to commercial use in many countries. These EVs have battery guarantee of 10 to 15 years, according to traders.
“On one hand electricity is cheaper than petroleum, while on the other electric vehicles are environment-friendly,” said Umesh Raj Shrestha, president of EVAN. The EVAN had submitted a report to DoTM some two years back identifying the routes and the potential number of EVs that could be allowed to ply the determined routes in the Valley, but the department has not yet taken any decision in this regard.
EV dealers have been highly encouraged with the reduction in customs tariff through the budget and the NEA’s plan to instal charging stations. However, DoTM has not shown any willingness to provide route permit to electric vehicles, which could dampen the promotion of electric vehicles as public transportation too.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

US drone strike kills leader of Pakistan’s Jamaat-ul-Ahrar militants: spokesman

                                DERA ISMAIL KHAN:  The leader of Pakistani militant group Jamaat-ul-Ahrar, who planned some of the deadliest suicide bombings in Pakistan over the last year, died on Thursday of wounds sustained in a US drone strike in Afghanistan, a spokesman said. “Our leader, Omar Khalid Khorasani, was wounded in one of the recent drone strikes in Afghanistan. He was wounded badly, and today he was martyred,” Asad Mansoor, a Jamaat-ul-Ahrar spokesman, said by telephone.The killing comes ahead of American Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s visit next week and is likely to further ease tensions between the often-wary allies, as Islamabad has been asking Washington for years to target militants who attack inside Pakistan and then hide over the border in Afghanistan. A splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban, Jamaat-ul-Ahrar has in the past also backed Middle East-based Islamic St...

India’s bullet train project re-ignites debate on land for ‘public purpose’

MUMBAI:  Plans for India’s first bullet train, a $17-billion-dollar project, have sparked a debate on the definition of “public purpose” for land acquisitions which have become increasingly contentious. The 500-km- (310-mile-) long high-speed rail link promises to cut travel time between the financial hub of Mumbai and the industrial city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat state by more than half to under three hours. The project, inaugurated earlier this month, will need about 825 hectares (2,000 acres) of land. The government has said it will complete the line by 2022, even as farmers along the proposed route held protests against giving up their land. They may have little say in the matter, as the state has a legal right to take private property for public purposes. But analysts say the definition of what constitutes public purpose needs revisiting, even for infrastructure projects. “When projects – airports, private colleges, bullet trains – benefit only a small percentage of ...

कुन प्रदेश को अस्थाई राजधानी कहाँ ? प्रदेश प्रमुख को ?

बुधबार ,३ माघ ( काठमाडौँ ) सरकारले आज सात ओटै प्रदेश को अस्थाई मुकाम र प्रदेश प्रमुख तोकेको छ | बुधबार बसेको मन्त्रि परिसद को बैठक ले सात ओटै प्रदेश को अस्थाई मुकाम र प्रदेश प्रमुख तोकेको हो | जसमा प्रदेश १ को बिराटनगर ,२ को जनकपुर ,३ को हेटौडा र ४ को मुकाम पोखरा तोकेको छ | तेस्तै प्रदेश ५ को रुपन्देही ,६ को सुर्खेत तथा ७ को धनगढी तोकिएको छ |  पदेश प्रमुख मा प्रदेश १ मा डाक्टर गोविन्द सुब्बा ,२ मा रत्नेस्वोरलाल कायस्थ ,३ मा अनुराधा कोइराला, ४ मा बाबुराम कुँवर, ५ मा उमाकान्त झा ,६ मा दुर्गा प्रसाद खनाल र ७ मा मोहनराज मल्ल लाई निउक्त गर्ने सरकारले निर्णय गरेको छ |