Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has started surveys to increase the number of charging stations for Electric Vehicles (EVs) throughout the country. This is part of NEA’s promotional activities and it aims to encourage people to use environment-friendly vehicles in the future.

The NEA, which has already set up country’s first EV charging station at its central office in Ratna Park, is working to set up more such stations. For this, the state-owned power utility, the NEA has said it has begun studying the possibility of EVs charging stations in the country. 

According to NEA Spokesperson Prabal Adhikari, the study will identify potential locations to install more charging stations, besides EV promotional activities.

“We have started surveys to identify how we can utilise the available spaces at the petrol pumps for installing EV charging stations. The study has been going on at different levels” said Adhikari.

The NEA is assessing the probability of surplus energy Nepal is likely to have after the completion of Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower Project. The project will add 456MW power to the national grid. Electricity generated from Tamakoshi is likely to create the energy-surplus condition in the country. 

“While we are working on potential charging stations, we are also estimating the surplus electricity situation, meaning the amount of extra energy, its utilisation and how much of it can be consumed by electric vehicles. If we fail to do so, then energy will go waste,” added Adhikari.

NEA plans promoting of use of EVs as one of the major ways of dealing with the surplus power situation in the future. As part of the internal survey, the NEA is also working on identifying special time slots with lower power consumption when such charging stations could operate.  

“We have some specific hours when energy consumption is comparatively low. For instance, inside the Kathmandu Valley, night time has low consumption so we can operate such stations during these hours,” said Adhikari. 

The NEA has said promoting EVs in the country is one of its major programmes for the year. Besides, it also plans to buy more EVs for its own internal operations. Recently, the NEA bought two EVs, and will be buying around 10 green vehicles for its use, the NEA Managing Director Kulman Ghising has said.

“Now onwards, we will increase the share of EVs in our operations. We are planning to buy more EVs in a bid to increase the number of EVs and replace fuel-powered vehicles. The NEA also plans to contribute in decrease the pollution level in the capital down,” said Adhikari.

While the NEA wishes to take the lead in encouraging people to switch to environment friendly EVs, it expects the government to intervene with policies that promote such vehicles in the future, when the country is likely to have improved power capacity.

“The NEA is doing its work on promoting EVs so that the generated energy can be consumed, but larger policy intervention is required from the government,” said Adhikari. The NEA plans to submit a detailed report including ways on how to increase energy consumption and steps to promote EVs to the newly formed government.