India permits Nepal to sell 44 MW electricity in India's real-time market

Kathmandu; The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has received permission from India to sell electricity in India's Energy Exchange (IEX) real-time market for the first time.

According to the NEA, the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) of India under the Ministry of Electricity granted approval to the Nepal Electricity Authority to sell electricity in the real-time market on Saturday. The new provision is expected to facilitate electricity management and add one more brick to the electricity trade between the two countries.

In the first phase, the CEA of India has allowed the sale of about 44 MW of electricity generated by the 19.4 MW Lower Modi and 24.25 MW Kabeli B1 hydropower projects in the real-time market.

Until now, NEA has been selling electricity in India’s day-ahead competitive market through a bidding process. In the new development, Nepal’s power utility is now able to participate in the bidding process one hour and 15 minutes before selling the electricity in the real-time market.

As of now, the electricity of both these projects is being sold in the day-ahead market. The permission to sell electricity in the day-ahead market was due to expire on Saturday.

Prabal Adhikari, director of the Power Trade Department of the NEA, informed that two projects sent for renewal of electricity trade in the day-ahead market have received permission for sale in both the day-ahead and real-time markets. "Earlier, we had to wait a day for importing and exporting electricity from the competitive market, but now we will be able to do business by bidding one hour and 15 minutes in advance. This has made it possible to buy and sell electricity if the electricity production suddenly stops or if the production increases," said Adhikari.

On July 31, the Ministry of Electricity of India amended the procedures of the bodies designated for approval and facilitation of cross-border trade of electricity to allow the authorized bodies of its neighboring countries to participate in the real-time market.

The NEA has been exporting surplus electricity to India during the rainy season. The authority has been selling around 110 MW of electricity to Indian company NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Ltd-NVVN through competition in IX's day-ahead market and recently under a mid-term power agreement. NVVN is selling electricity in the state of Haryana.

The NEA has received approval for the export of 522 MW of electricity in the competitive market and 110 MW to Haryana for a total of 632 MW. Out of this, 562 MW of electricity is being exported through the Dhalkebar-Muzaffar 400 kV transmission line and 70 MW from Mahendranagar-Tanakpur 132 kV transmission line.

In the first two months of the current fiscal year 2023/24, the NEA exported electricity worth over Rs 5.43 billion to India.