Private sector’s contribution on exported electricity now exceeds that of government

Kathmandu: The private hydroelectricity developers have received permission to export 319 MW of electricity, with India recently providing approval to purchase more electricity from Nepal.

At a time when the private hydropower promoters have been pushing the government to pave the way to export electricity to India, they have received approval to export about 319 MW of electricity from the projects that they run. The private sector in this regard received approval for four projects to export electricity to India. In the new development, India has paved the way for the private sector projects to export electricity out of nine projects in total.

According to the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), the projects that have received approval for electricity export are Chilime (subsidiary of the NEA), Solu Khola, Kabeli B-1, Likhu-4, Lower Modi, Solu-Dudhkosi, Dordi Khola, Upper Kalanga Gad and Upper Chamelia. India’s latest move has energized the promoters and investors of the energy sector. According to them, it has ensured the market expansion for hydropower produced in Nepal.

As of now, five projects under the state-owned power utility have received approval for exporting 313 MW of electricity to India. These government run projects include Trishuli, Devighat, Marsyangdi, Kaligandaki A and Madhya Marsyangdi hydropower projects.

Out of the total of 632 MW of electricity receiving permission for export, the private sectors now have more share than that of the government run projects.

The amount of private sector electricity exported to India will increase after the Indian Cabinet meeting on Tuesday approved the electricity of four projects. Six months ago, Nepal proposed to export electricity from these projects to the southern neighbor.  

Earlier, India had approved purchasing 452 MW of electricity from Nepal by using the Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur cross border transmission line to be sold in India's 'day ahead market.' Out of the production of four projects approved on Tuesday, 110 MW will be sold in the day ahead market, while 70 MW will be purchased by the Indian Company NVVN to be supplied to Haryana, an Indian state, by using the Tanakpur based transmission line.

According to the NEA, with the process of bilateral agreement led by its Load Dispatch Center for this process in progress, the electricity export of the approved amount (180 MW) has been started only from 12 midnight on Wednesday (September 6). The Nepal-India 10th Energy Secretary level meeting approved the capacity of 800 MW of electricity from the Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur cross border line, out of which 562 MW has been approved. Even with the export of 110 MW of electricity approved on Tuesday, there is still 238 MW of electricity remaining to supply through this system.

Details of approved projects to export electricity to India

Source: Nepal Electricty Authority

The NEA started selling 39 MW of electricity in India from November 2021. In May 2022, 364 MW of electricity from six more projects were allowed to be sold in the Indian market at competitive rates.

In October 2022, two more hydropower projects were approved for export, taking the supply to 452 MW. Nepal has been waiting for India's approval to export another 750 MW of electricity from 14 projects.