NEA eying at India to sale excess surplus electricity

Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower project has started generating electricity in the full swing. That means all turbines installed have been operationalized to generate 456 Mega Watt of electricity. With the electricity generated from the largest hydropower plant so far and getting connected to the national grid, around 400 MW of surplus electricity has remained unconsumed in the night hours and the reserve electricity in the day is 200 MW.

In the past, electricity generation in the country could not address the demand situation. Therefore load shedding used to be imposed mainly in the dry season. The no-light hours count even 16 hours in a day. Now, the scenario has changed with Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) incurring daily loss equivalent to Rs. 40 million due to surplus power.

Now electricity generation needs to be well consumed. But due to various technical reasons the amount of electricity generated could not be consumed in the domestic sector. NEA and relevant agencies are planning to consume the electricity generated in the domestic sector such as industries, electric mobility, electric cooking and so on.

Similarly NEA is looking for excess electricity generated in Nepal to export to India in the wet season and take back in the dry season to fill up the gap in generation and demand. 

During his recent visit to India, Managing Director of NEA Kulman Ghising had urged Indian officials to facilitate in finding an accessible market for the surplus power from Nepal. The NEA delegation discussed with the Indian side export of surplus power from Nepal to India and import of power from India during the lean period. So as a green light has been expected from India to be materialise the deal “NEA has proposed mutual seasonal electricity exchange with Bihar State Power Holding Company Limited to utilise surplus power generated during monsoon from various hydropower projects, including the 456-megawatt Upper Tamakoshi hydropower,” mentioned Ghising. In case of unequal amounts of electricity exchange between Nepal and Bihar, its price will be fixed through an appropriate method,” he said. This is to recall that there has been electricity exchange between Nepal and India since 1971.