Newly appointed Executive Director of the NEA, Hitendra Dev Shakya, informed that India has agreed to extend the period for importing electricity following the request of the Nepali side.
The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) will be allowed to import electricity from India for an additional four hours. The NEA, which was previously importing electricity for 12 hours daily, will now be allowed to import up to 16 hours from Friday.
Newly appointed Executive Director of the NEA, Hitendradev Shakya, informed that India has agreed to extend the time of electricity import after the request of the Nepali side. ‘Earlier, electricity could be imported from 6 am to 6 pm, now it is allowed to import electricity from 6 am to 5 pm and from 11 pm to 4 am,’ he said, ‘The amount of electricity that can be imported has also increased over time.’
India has allowed to import a total of 654 megawatts of electricity, including 600 megawatts from the 400 kV Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur transmission line and 54 megawatts from the Tanakpur-Mahendranagar transmission line. The NEA has been importing from India to meet domestic demand as electricity production is low during winter. When it allowed to import electricity during winter last Mangesh, India had allowed to import only 20 hours a day until Chaitra 2 and solar hours (6 am to 6 pm) from Chaitra 3 to Ashar 16. Since Chaitra 3, the NEA has been importing electricity for 12 hours a day.
Nepal has been purchasing electricity through competition in the day-ahead and real-time markets of the Indian Energy Exchange Limited (IX). Accordingly, ‘bidding’ is done on the day before the purchase with price and quantity. Up to 550 MW has been imported from IX so far during the day. Nepal has also been importing electricity from the Nepal-India Electricity Exchange Committee (PEC). Although it is allowed to import 350 MW through PEC, Nepal has been importing only 200 MW.
‘Although it is allowed to import 350 MW from PEC, India is not giving it,’ Shakya said, ‘India is giving it to us only when it is not necessary.’ With the provision to import electricity even at night, he claimed that load shedding in the Biratnagar and Bhairahawa industrial corridors will be stopped from Friday. ‘There will be no load shedding in the industrial sector except during peak hours,’ he said.
He also informed that the process has been initiated with India's NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN) to bring in an additional 230 megawatts of electricity. 'An agreement was reached last October to bring in 230 megawatts of electricity, but due to lack of follow-up, India had already sold the electricity to others, so it was cancelled,' he said, 'We have asked for a bid from NVVN. It is important to see how much it will cost.' He said that if the electricity that is in the process can be imported, load shedding in the industrial sector will be limited to 2/3 hours.
