Electricity export to India from Kaligandaki starts

By Laxman Kafle Kathmandu, June 6: Export of electricity generated from the 144 MW Kaligandaki A project owned by Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) to India has started.

The NEA has started exporting electricity generated from Kaligandaki Power House from Saturday midnight.

NEA has been exporting about 39 MW of electricity daily from Trishuli and Devighat hydropower plants to the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) since Thursday.

The power utility has started exporting 177.7 MW of electricity to India since the beginning of Kaligandaki. About 140 MW of electricity of Kaligandaki A, 23.2 MW of Trishuli and 14.5 MW of Devighat is exported to India.

The NEA has exported the surplus energy to India after the power plants started running at full capacity due to increased flow of water in the river along with the onset of rains.

NEA Managing Director Kul Man Ghising said that the average selling price of electricity exported from Saturday night was Rs. 11.2 per unit.

“The maximum rate is Rs. 19 (IRs 12) per unit, the minimum is Rs. 2.38 (IRs 1.49) and the average rate is Rs. 11.2 (IRs 7),” Ghising said.

In Indian Energy Exchange, 24 hours are divided into 96 blocks of 15 minutes each and electricity is traded at competitive rates fixed by the market. So the price of each block is different.

According to NEA, the maximum and minimum prices of electricity exported on Thursday are IRs. 12 (Rs. 19.2) and IRs. 2.49 (Rs. 3.98) per unit, respectively. The average price that day is IRs. 6.72 (Rs. 10.76) per unit.

Similarly, on Saturday, the Authority sold electricity at a maximum price of Rs. 19.2 (IRs. 12) and a minimum of Rs. 4.08 (IRs. 2.55) per unit. The average price is Rs. 11.48 (IRs. 7.18).

Nepal has been allowed to sell up to 364 MW of electricity at competitive rates in the Indian energy exchange market.

“The NEA will increase electricity export to India gradually based on power generation in the country. We will export above 200 MW electricity from Monday midnight,” he told The Rising Nepal.

Even though NEA was compelled to cut power for industries for a few weeks a month ago, now there is an opportunity for the country to reap benefits by exporting electricity to India, he said.

“We are selling energy at a competitive rate through the IEX as there is still an energy problem in India due to Russia-Ukraine war,” he said.

Nepal’s demand is 1,600 to 1,700 MW at peak time and electricity demand is around 1,300 to 1,400 MW. The installed capacity of electricity in Nepal is 2,200 MW.