India to import 22 megawatt more energy from Nepal

KATHMANDU: The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has received approval from India to export 22 megawatts of power produced from Chilime Hydropower Company.

The spokesperson of NEA Suresh Bahadur Bhattarai confirmed that the approval was obtained on Oct 31 from India’s Central Electricity Authority to export more power to India.

With this approval, Nepal now would export 386 MW of power to India, Spokesperson Bhattarai added. As per the data released by the NEA last month, the power export to Nepal had exceeded one billion unit and the latest data are expected to be released soon.

Earlier, the NEA had proposed for the sale of 100.9 MW of power at a competitive price in the Day-Ahead Market of Indian Energy Exchange Limited (IEX) by considering sources to the electricity produced from four different hydropower projects.

The NEA had proposed for the export of hydropower produced from Likhukhola ‘A’ (29 MW), Kabeli B-I (25 MW), Maikhola (22 MW), Hewakhola A (15 MW) and Lower Modi I (10 MW).

Likewise, the proposal was made for the export of 111 MW of power generated from Mistrikhola, Solukhola, Chilime and other projects.

Executive Director of NEA Kulman Ghising expressed confidence to get permission from India to export power from Nepal.

From the export of surplus power, Nepal has earned nearly 8 billion rupees in the past five months.