Nepal has abundant hydropower potential and generation capacity under construction that should be able to meet the growing energyneed of the country. Although access to electricity in the country is increasing, adoption and access to clean cooking facilities remainsinsignificant, as about 85% of the population still rely on solid fuels to meet their daily cooking needs. In this regard, energy generatedfrom hydropower can play the dual role of providing access to modern energy as well as providing a clean cooking alternative that isclean and sustainable. Having realized this, the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation has issued a white paper (point73) for the ‘Electric Stove in Every House’ Programme, which is expected to encourage the use of electric cooking. This gives anopportunity not only to make use of Nepal’s hydropower resources but also to reduce its dependence on imported fossil fuel. Ourpaper discusses the challenges and opportunities for introducing electricity in the cooking fuel mix in Nepal from the policyperspective. We draw upon the review of lessons learned from other countries including Ecuador, Bhutan and South Africa, toillustrate the potential pathways for the transition of fossil fuel-based products to electricity in Nepal. These countries have used acombination of approaches in including electricity in their cooking fuel mix, such as favourable electricity pricing, import tariffreductions in cooking appliances, and developing national policy and programmes to facilitate the integration of electricity in cookingfuel. These lessons from these countries are used to recommend pathways for moving from fossil fuel-based products to electricity inNepal’s context.
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