Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has exported electricity worth Rs 2.15 billion to India in one and a half months. The authority sold electricity equivalent to the aforementioned amount at a competitive rate in the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) market.

The NEA started exporting electricity to India on 2nd June. Spokesperson for NEA, Suresh Bahadur Chhetri said that the authority is exporting 7,000 megawatt-hours of electricity to India every day. He said, “NEA is currently exporting electricity at an average rate of Rs 4 to 6 per unit.”

The authority started exporting 39 megawatts of electricity to India on 2nd June. With the increase in electricity production in Nepal, the authority has been exporting 364 MW of electricity since June 10. The authority exported electricity worth Rs 1.72 billion to India during the 28 days of June itself. The average rate of electricity sold in the Indian market in June was Rs 9.67 per unit.

In IEX, 24 hours are divided into 96 blocks of 15 minutes where electricity is traded at competitive rates fixed by the market. So, the price of electricity in each block is different. Chhetri said that NEA has been exporting a maximum of 364 MW of electricity. He said, “We have not been able to export 364 MW of electricity throughout the 24 hours of a day, but we have been exporting 7,000 megawatt-hours of electricity daily to India on an average.”

The NEA said that because the consumption of electricity is less in Nepal at night, it has been able to export at full capacity at night. “With the onset of the monsoon season, electricity in the Indian market has become cheaper,” he said, “Currently, the demand for electricity from India is increasing, but the price of electricity is also decreasing compared to that of the past.”

Spokesman Chhetri said that electricity demand is higher when the temperature increases and it is lower when it rains. “Even selling 364 MW is difficult sometimes,” he said. He said that the system in NEA has to be made systematic as technical problems occur in the system from time to time.

During the visit of Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba to India last April, a joint vision statement on energy cooperation between Nepal and India was issued. That meeting opened the door to exporting Nepal's electricity to India. At present, 37.7 megawatts from the Trishuli and Devighat Hydroelectric Power Stations, 140 megawatts from Kali Gandaki ‘A’ Hydroelectric Power Station, 68 megawatts from the Middle Marsyangdi Hydroelectric Power Station, 67 megawatts from Marsyangdi Hydroelectric Power Station and 51 megawatts of electricity from Likhu-4 Hydroelectric Power Station are being exported to the Indian market daily.

The surplus electricity is exported to the Indian market through the 400 kV Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur transmission line. NEA imported electricity worth Rs 21.39 billion from India in the fiscal year 2021/22. In the same year, a total of 2.81 billion units of electricity was produced from the authority’s hydroelectric power plants.

This is 6.96 percent less than the production of 3.2 billion units in the fiscal year 2019/20. Similarly, in the year 2019/20, electricity worth Rs 13.42 billion was imported from India. As a consequence of the fall in production in the authority’s hydroelectric power plants, more electricity had to be imported into the country in the previous year.