Kathmandu, November 15: After India, the electricity produced in Nepal has started to be exported to Bangladesh from today. This is another historic event in regional electricity trade. Nepal’s Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Minister Deepak Khadka, India’s Electricity Minister Manohar Lal and Bangladesh’s Ministry of Electricity, Energy and Minerals Advisor Mohammad Fozul Kabir Khan jointly launched the export of electricity by pressing a switch through virtual technology. Since electricity trade was only between Nepal and India, now Nepal’s electricity has expanded to third countries.
The electricity produced in Nepal has reached Bangladesh through the transmission structure of India. Electricity will reach India’s Muzaffarpur substation through the first international Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur 400 kV transmission line between Nepal and India. Then from Muzaffarpur substation, through India’s transmission line, electricity will reach Bangladesh through Bahrampur (India) – Vermara (Bangladesh) 400 kV transmission line between India and Bangladesh. The export of electricity from Nepal to Bangladesh through India has started from 12:30 noon today. During the rainy season of this year (year 2024), the electricity export will be only till 12 midnight today.
After that, electricity export to Bangladesh will start again from June 15, 2025. The Central Electricity Authority under the Ministry of Electricity of India on Thursday approved the export of 18.60 and 21.40 megawatts of electricity produced by the Trishuli and Chilime hydropower projects to Bangladesh. The Central Electricity Authority has approved the export of 40 megawatts of electricity produced by the two projects to Bangladesh until October 2, 2029. Both these projects have received approval for electricity export in India. The Nepal Electricity Authority will sell 40 megawatts of electricity to Bangladesh for six months of the rainy season, i.e. from June 15 to November 15 every year for five years.
The authority will get 6.40 US cents per unit (8 rupees 62 paisa according to today’s exchange rate) by selling electricity to Bangladesh. For the first time, Nepal is about to generate income in dollars from the sale of electricity. Electricity trade with India has been done in Indian rupees.
The authority will get 28 thousand one hundred sixty US dollars by exporting electricity to Bangladesh for 11 hours and 30 minutes today. The authority will get the price of electricity exported to Bangladesh at the Muzaffarpur point in India. The authority will bear the technical leakage of the transmission line from Dhalkebar to Muzaffarpur.
Bangladesh will bear all the taxes and charges including transmission line charges, leakages, NVVN, trading margin charged by India after Muzaffarpur point. A tripartite power sale agreement was signed between Nepal Electricity Authority, NTPC Electricity Trading Corporation (NVVN), India and Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) on October 17, 2017 to transport 40 megawatts of electricity from Nepal to Bangladesh using the Indian transmission grid.
After the tripartite power sale agreement, the authority sent the list of projects to the Central Electricity Authority of India for the approval of Bangladesh electricity export on 23 October. After the approval of the Central Electricity Authority of India on Thursday, the export of electricity has started from today.
According to the provision in the law, on 16 December 2080, BPDB invited bids for the purchase of 40 megawatts of electricity produced in Nepal in accordance with the tripartite agreement between the entities of Bangladesh, India and Nepal for a period of five years. The Authority had submitted the tender document with the rate of electricity to be sold in the prescribed format for the sale of electricity. After the bid submitted by the authority was accepted, the process of tripartite electricity sale agreement was moved forward.
