Nepal makes net income for the first time by selling electricity to India

Nepal has for the first time, made net income by selling electricity to India in the last fiscal year 2023-24. The country has become a net electricity exporter for the first time with the earnings from electricity export exceeding the import of the same from India in the last fiscal year, said Chandan Ghosh, spokesperson at the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA).

According to the Ghosh, NEA exported electricity worth Rs 16.93 billion to the southern neighbour in the last fiscal year 2023/24 where as we imported electricity worth Rs 16.81 billion from the country in the same period. This way, the NEA made a small gain of Rs 120 million from the transaction, he added.

We hope to gain more in the coming days through exporting more electricity to India, Ghosh said. However, we will export electricity only after fulfilling our domestic demands, he added.

The contribution of the electricity generated by the private sector has led to a sizable increase in the electricity exports, he pointed out. Nepal used to just import electricity some 6.7 years ago to reduce its load shedding hours. Once the country was facing load shedding of up to 16 hours per day during dry season. Nepal started exporting electricity to India three years ago.

India for the first time allowed Nepal to sell electricity in its day-ahead market in 2021. At present, Nepal has been exporting 690 MW of electricity to Indian market.

Nepal has been exporting its surplus electricity to India in the peak production season starting from June to November. The country imports power from India during dry season.

Nepal has inked an agreement with India to sell 10,000 MW of electricity in the next 10 years.