How Much Has Nepal Lost in the Last Decade Due to Load Shedding? : An Economic Assessment Using a CGE Model

Timilsina, Govinda ; Sapkota, Prakash ; Steinbuks, Jevgenijs

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: LOAD SHEDDING;    ELECTRICITY;    CGE MODEL;    ECONOMIC GROWTH;    INVESTMENT CLIMATE;   

DOI  :  10.1596/1813-9450-8468
RP-ID  :  WPS8468

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Nepal suffered with severe shortage ofelectricity supply or load shedding in the last decade.Electricity load shedding is considered one of the majorbarriers to the country's economic development. Thisstudy uses a computable general equilibrium model toestimate the economic costs of electricity load shedding thecountry faced during 2008-16. The study shows that if therehad been no load shedding, annual gross domestic product, onaverage, would have been almost 7 percent higher than it wasduring 2008-16. The worst effects of load shedding were onthe investment environment. If there had been no loadshedding, investment would have been 48 percent higher thanit was. Although electricity load shedding has been reducedrecently in the residential sector through betterelectricity load management and increased electricityproduction and imports, the industrial sector, one of themain sources of economic growth in the country, still facesload shedding. Unless the electricity load shedding iseliminated, Nepal will continue to suffer a heavy economic loss.