Nepal to export 251 MW of power to India

Kathmandu, August 19 - The Government of India has approved the import of 251 megawatts of electricity from 12 hydropower projects in Nepal. The Indian Embassy in Nepal announced on Monday that the Central Electricity Authority of India has granted this approval.

According to the embassy, Nepal will export electricity to Bihar for the first time under a medium-term sales agreement. With this new approval, the total approved export capacity from Nepal will increase to 941 megawatts from 28 projects, up from 690 megawatts from 16 projects.

Prior to this approval, Nepal had already become a net electricity exporter and revenue generator by selling electricity worth NPR 16.93 billion. In October 2021, India permitted the export of 39 megawatts of electricity from Nepal, and this amount has now increased more than 24 times in less than three years.

Nepal began exporting energy through the day-ahead market of the Indian Energy Exchange and has since gained access to real-time markets. The Nepal Electricity Authority has also entered into medium-term power sale agreements with distribution companies in Haryana and Bihar.

India has also introduced a provision to include hydropower imports from Nepal as part of the Hydropower Purchase Obligation (HPO), which is expected to encourage Indian buyers to purchase electricity from Nepal.

The long-term energy agreement between Nepal and India anticipates the sale of up to 10,000 megawatts of electricity from Nepal to India over the next decade. This year marks the beginning of the agreement, and nearly 1,000 megawatts have already been exported.

Previously, an agreement to sell 40 megawatts of electricity to Bangladesh was scheduled to be signed on the 28th of July, but it has been postponed due to recent political developments in Bangladesh.