India’s electricity export has exceeded 1 billion units. The Nepal Electricity Authority started selling the excess monsoon electricity consumed within the country through competition in the day-ahead market of Indian Energy Exchange Limited (IEX) from 2nd June 2022. After that, 1 billion 3 million units of electricity were exported till Tuesday i.e. 11 October 2022.

Kulman Ghising, Managing director of the Authority, said after fulfilling domestic demand , a net income of Rs. 7,93,22,00,000 during this period. Electricity exported was “Exceeding one billion units of electricity export which is another milestone for us”, he said. The average price per unit of exported electricity is 7 rupees 91 paise.

In the beginning, 39 megawatts of electricity produced by two power plants was considered as a source and was sold to IEX on a daily basis. Since then, 364 megawatts of electricity produced by 6 hydropower plants have been sold in the Indian market at a competitive rate on a daily basis since 10th June 2022.

Since the electricity trade with India is done in Indian rupees (IRs), during this period, 4.95 billion IRs has been brought into Nepal from the sale of electricity.

This is contributing to reducing Nepal’s foreign exchange reserves and the trade deficit between the two countries. The authority aims to earn about 16 billion rupees from electricity export in the current financial year.

In IEX, 24 hours are divided into 96 blocks of 15-15 minutes and electricity is traded at a competitive rate set by the market. Therefore, the price of each block is different. The average rate of electricity exported by the authority so far is 7 rupees 91 paise per unit.