Nepal was witnessing the years-long problem of load shedding, even up to 18 hours a day, which troubled every sector in the country. The whole country was surviving on candles, batteries, generators. This hindered businesses, media, education among almost all the sectors in Nepal.
However, Ghising’s appointment at the Nepal Electricity Authority NEA as the Managing Director was the first step in ending the persistent problem of years-long scheduled power cuts in the country.
Being the experienced personnel in power trade and distribution for the past two decades, Ghising was the perfect candidate to bring an end to this huge setback in the country. In his tenure of four years as the NEA Chief, Ghising not only ended the load shedding problem, but also brought several plans to export power to the neighboring countries, controlled power leakage, among others.
Ghising hails from Bethan village, Ramechhap District in eastern Nepal. He studied in Duhu Secondary School. Then in seventh grade, he moved to Kathmandu and went to Bal Sewa Secondary School in Jhochhe. He gave his SLC from Amar Adarsh Secondary School and did his Intermediate level from Amrit Science College. He received a scholarship from the Regional Institute of Technology in Jamshedpur, India, to study electrical engineering.
After finishing his bachelor’s in 1994 from India, he returned to Nepal in 2051 BS.
He started working as a seventh-level engineer in the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA). He completed his post-graduate studies from Pulchowk Engineering College. He also holds an MBA degree from Ace Institute of Management.
While working in the NEA, Kulman got the responsibility of the Chilime Hydropower Project. He completed the project before time. He also proved that power projects can also be built merely with Nepal’s investment.
Ghising was appointed as Managing Director of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) in September 2016.
After a few tests, he succeeded in bringing down the power cuts nationwide from the day of Laxmi Puja, the Hindu festival that is celebrated by turning all the household luminous. That evening, people didn’t have to see the lightless night as the power was not cut and it has continued till date.
He ended the decade-long load-shedding and also took NEA from billions in loss to billions in profit. The Authority earned a profit of Rs 11.04 billion in a very short time period, before which, it was at a great loss. Also, Nepal Electricity Authority became the most profit-earning government institution at this time.
The outstanding problem of electricity leakage that was about 26% before, was brought down to 15.27%. As a result, 11% Leakage was Controlled.
Ghising emphasized better management and more equitable power distribution. By introducing the policy of providing 24 hours uninterrupted power supply to a few large industries at the expense of the general public, he immediately eliminated power cuts in the major cities, and reduced load-shedding to other parts of the country to around two hours every other day. He materialized thorough examination of the hydropower generation system storing water during low demand-hours and utilizing the online power plants that had been inactive due to poor maintenance. He came up with a public awareness campaign to cast down the use of high-voltage domestic equipment in peak hours. Load-shedding was ended across the nation, for both residential and industrial sectors by May 2018.
Kulman Ghising has also been honored by the Government and Several institutions. IPPAN (Independent Power Producers’ Association, Nepal) an organization of the private energy-producing sector, felicitated him for his contribution to the nation’s economic growth and an end to load shedding problem.
His tenure ended on September 14, 2020. But the people in the country are still longing to see him as the NEA chief again. Some even expressed hope that he would enter politics and be the leading politician with the expectation that he can take the country to a better place.
People were trending #thankyoukulmanghising and #wewantkulmanghising in social media. With the retirement of Kulman Ghising, people are fearing there will be load-shedding again in the country.