Delhi, 6 June 2022
Amid power crisis in many Indian states, Nepal has started exporting additional 144 MW of electricity generated from its Kaligandaki River Hydropower Project to India. Due to good rains this year, Nepal is selling its surplus electricity to India for the second year in a row. The information was given by Nepal Electricity Authority. According to NEA Deputy Chief Pradip Thike, the average rate of electricity sales is around Rs. 7 per unit. Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has started supplying additional electricity generated from Kaligandaki River Hydropower Project to India from Saturday night. According to the power exchange agreement between Nepal and India, electricity is being exported to India.
In Nepal, electricity generation has actually increased due to good rains in the last few months. Due to which Nepal has received more electricity than required. In such a situation, NEA had started selling 37.7 MW of electricity to Indian buyers for the first time. According to NEA spokesperson Suresh Bhattarai, 24 MW of electricity generated from Trishuli plant and 15 MW from Devighat plant have been sold to India recently. As this electricity is sold at Rs 6 per unit, it is estimated that Nepal will earn around Rs 10 million.
NEA Deputy Chief Pradip Thike said that Nepal would now sell a total of 178 MW of electricity to India through India Energy Exchange Limited (IX) after generating 144 MW of additional electricity from the Kaligandaki Hydropower Project. India had given approval to NEA last April to supply 325 MW of electricity generated from Nepal’s hydropower project to India. This includes additional electricity generated in three other hydropower projects besides Kaligandaki Hydropower.