KATHMANDU, DECEMBER 20
With the domestic production insufficient to meet peak local power demand during the winter months, Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has started importing power from India since one week.
According to NEA Spokesperson Suresh Bhattrai, Nepal has been importing 4,000 MWh of power at competitive rate in the Indian energy market on a daily basis.
"We will be importing more electricity from India as the production of hydropower plants will decrease further during the dry season," Bhattrai added.
"The current electricity demand of the country stands around 1,680 MW while the domestic production is 1,000 MW," he added.
Managing Director Kulman Ghising said that the NEA will be importing power from India to meet the domestic demand for four months.
"Due to the decline in domestic production, electricity is being imported on a daily basis to meet the demand.
Our projection is that electricity imports will continue for around four months, but the quantum of imports will be less than the exports," Ghising said.
Meanwhile, the NEA has also halted export of surplus power to India since Monday as production from the river-based hydroelectric power stations decreased.
"Export of surplus power will start again from the first week of May. In the previous years, the amount of electricity exported was lower than the income. But from this fiscal year, we will become net exporters," Ghising claimed.
NEA has generated net income of Rs 11.16 billion via trading 1.36 billion units of surplus power at competitive rate in the Indian energy market as of Sunday.
This year, NEA began exporting 39 MW of surplus power to India from June 2, which included 24 MW produced from Trishuli hydropower and 15 MW from Devighat powerhouse.
NEA then exported up to 364 MW of surplus electricity produced from six hydropower plants daily to Indian market through 400kV Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur cross-border transmission line at a competitive rate from June 10.
According to the NEA, power is being traded at a competitive rate set by IEX - dividing 24 hours into 96 blocks of 15 minutes each. NEA had traded surplus power worth Rs 3.88 billion in the last fiscal year.
A version of this article appears in the print on December 21, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
