Nepal asks India for power supply in dry season

The main agenda of the energy secretary-level meeting between Nepal and India held in New Delhi last Monday was to finalize the modality of two cross-border transmission lines.

After the meeting chaired by Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Secretary Suresh Acharya reached an in-principle agreement on the modality of the transmission line, Nepal proposed a proposal to India to provide electricity to Nepal during peak hours during the dry season.

Nepal side proposed India side to provide electricity during peak hours (morning and evening) explaining that electricity given to Nepal only during solar hours in the day time is not meeting the demand in Nepal in morning and evening hours. The decrease in electricity generation in dry season, the industrial sector had to reduce the load for 8 hours a day.

In response to that, the Indian side informed that they are not comfortable in supplying during the peak hour and advised Nepal to pay attention to the storage type project.

In fact, for Nepal, large storage or reliable alternatives to other technologies are necessary to be self-reliant even in dry seasons. It is clear that it should be serious.

Although the installed capacity has reached 3500 MW, there is a compulsion to import up to 600 MW from India to meet the 1500 MW of winter. As most of the hydropower projects constructed in Nepal are run-off-the river type (based on volume of water flowing on river). The electricity generation decrease below 30% of installed capacity in winter. But in the wet season a huge amount of electricity goes waste if India does not take.

The 12th meeting of Nepal India Energy Secretary-level joint directorate committee was held under the co-chairmanship of Suresh Acharya, Secretary of the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation of the Government of Nepal and Pankaj Agarwal, Secretary of the Ministry of Power of the Government of India.

The meeting has decided to increase the amount of electricity import-export from 800 megawatts to 1000 megawatts from the first inland Dhalkebar – Muzaffarpur 400 kilovolt transmission line currently in operation.

It also agreed to prepare a detailed project report of the 220 kilovolt double circuit transmission line between Chamelia (Nepal) – Joulijivi (India) by March 2025 and to complete the construction of the Nepal section transmission line by Nepal Power Authority and the India section transmission line Power Grid by the end of 2027.

It has been agreed to complete the construction of 400 kilovolt capacity inland transmission lines between Inaruwa-New Purnia and Dododhara-Bareli through joint ventures by 2028/29 and 2029/30 respectively. For this, it was agreed that the transmission line towards Nepal will be 51% Nepal Electricity Authority and 49% of India’s Power Grid and for the transmission line toward India, 51% of Power Grid and 49% of Nepal Electricity Authority will be owned in joint venture modality.

It has also been agreed to complete the work related to the establishment of joint venture company within one month. Secretary Acharya said that it has been agreed to prepare a detailed project report and construct and expand the below mentioned inland transmission lines in order to export more electricity from Nepal to India for the year 2034-35. similarly, there is a target of constructing a 400 kV transmission line between Nijgadh/Harnaiya (Nepal) – Motihari (India) by 2034-35, It has been agreed to construct a 400kV transmission line between Kohalpur (Nepal) – Lucknow (India by 2024-35.

After the completion of these infrastructures, Nepal will be able to export 15,000 megawatts of electricity to India.