India agrees to import additional 22 MW of electricity from Nepal

Kathmandu: India has consented to import an additional 22 MW of electricity from Nepal. According to the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), it has recently received approval from India to export 22 MW of power produced by Chilime Hydropower Company.

Spokesperson NEA Suresh Bahadur Bhattarai confirmed that the approval was obtained on October 31 from India’s Central Electricity Authority, allowing it to export more power to India.

Bhattarai added that with the approval in place, Nepal would be able to export 386 MW of power to India.  The NEA records show that power export from Nepal exceeded one billion units last month.

Earlier, the NEA had proposed the sale of 100.9 MW of power at a competitive price in the Day-Ahead Market of Indian Energy Exchange Limited (IEX) by considering the source of the electricity produced from four different hydropower projects.

The NEA had proposed the export of hydropower produced from Likhukhola ‘A’ (29 MW), Kabeli B-I (25 MW), Maikhola (22 MW), Hewakhola A (15 MW) and Lower Modi I (10 MW).  

Likewise, the proposal was made for the export of 111 MW of power generated from Mistrikhola, Solukhola, Chilime and other projects. 

From the export of surplus power, Nepal has earned nearly 8 billion rupees in the past five months.