Nepal Rastriya Dainik

India rejects Nepal’s proposal to build cross-border electricity transmission line

Posted on February 12, 2024February 12, 2024 by नेपाल राष्ट्रिय दैनिक

An official of the Electricity Authority has said that India does not want to involve Nepal in the construction of two new international transmission lines.

As Nepal has proposed to construct 400 kV Inaruwa (Duhabi-Purnia, Bihar) and 400 kV New Lamki (Dodhara-Bareli, Uttar Pradesh) cross-border lines through joint investment between the two countries, Indian side has proposed to construct the Indian section by India itself and Nepal’s section by Nepal itself. The head of the Broadcasting Directorate of the Electricity Authority, Dirghayu kumar Shrestha said.

In the 11th meeting of the Joint Secretary-level Joint Working Group (JWG) and Joint Secretary-level Steering Committee (JSC), the discussions held by both sides ended without any concrete conclusion. It has been agreed between the two countries to complete the construction of Duhavi-Purnia by 2027-2028 and Dodhara-Bareli power lines by 2028-2029.

Authority officials said that it was not immediately clear why the Indian side did not want to jointly build the project.

400 KV Butwal-Gorakhpur transmission line has been established in collaboration with the Authority and the Indian Power Grid Corporation of India to construct the Indian section.

Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone of the 400 KV inter-country power line during their visit to Delhi.

The two countries have agreed to build a 120-km power line by March 2025, but authority officials say it will be challenging to complete the task within the deadline. The Nepal section of this line, which is about 20 kilometers long, will be invested by Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Nepal Compact.

Nepal also proposed the same modality for the construction of two other transmission lines.

After the Indian side rejected the proposal, Nepal informed the Indian side that it will not unilaterally book the capacity of this transmission line for 25 years as in the case of Butwal-Gorakhpur transmission line.

Capacity booking forces Nepal to pay the minimum fee even if there is no power flow on the transmission line. “We proposed to the Indian side to pay the wheeling charge based on the power flow only if they do not adopt the Butwal-Gorakhpur power line modality,” said Shrestha.

Nepal had agreed to book capacity on the Butwal-Gorakhpur transmission line as it needed this cross-border line to sell more electricity to its southern neighbour.

“Despite bearing certain financial burden due to capacity booking, in the case of Butwal-Gorakhpur transmission line, the profit of the joint venture will also be shared with the Authority as a partner”, said Shrestha.

40 megawatt electricity trade with Bangladesh from coming monsoon

Posted on February 1, 2024February 1, 2024 by नेपाल राष्ट्रिय दैनिक

Kathmandu – The Nepal government has started the final process of exporting 40 megawatts of electricity to Bangladesh from the coming monsoon.

The Economic Affairs Committee of the Bangladesh Council of Ministers decided to purchase 40 megawatts of electricity from Nepal on last December. According to the said decision, Bangladesh had sent a letter to Nepal to send a proposal for sale by prioritizing the price. After the correspondence from Bangladesh, the official of Nepal Electricity Authority has gone to Bangladesh with the tariff rate.”Bangladesh will send a reply based on our proposal,” Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Minister Shakti Bahadur Basnet said.

Kulman Ghisingh, Executive Director of Electricity Authority, said that since the business is going to be done with Bangladesh for the first time, the reasonable price has been offered. “We have sent a proposal that is close to the rate we are doing with India,” he said. Ghising says that an engineer from the Electricity Trade Department sent from Nepal will register the sealed file with the price in the Power Development Board of Bangladesh within 4 days. If something has to be arranged, we will arrange it, otherwise there will be an agreement,” he said.

Bangladesh will take Nepal’s electricity using Indian transmission lines. In the Nepal-India secretary level meeting held last February, India has already said that it will send the name of the project and allow it. According to the authority, the power trading with Bangladesh will be done through the Indian power trading company NTPC Vidyut Vyar Nigam. Ghisingh, executive director of the authority, said that the necessary understanding for a tripartite agreement has been reached with NTPC Electricity Trading Corporation, Nepal Electricity Authority and Power Development Board of Bangladesh.

‘After the tripartite agreement, Nepal will export electricity to Bangladesh via India,’ he said, ‘Barring any unforeseen circumstances, Nepal’s electricity will reach Bangladesh from the coming monsoon.’
Electricity will be sold to Bangladesh by paying a ‘billing charge’ to India. The fee paid for using the transmission line is the ‘Billing Charge and the billing charge will be paid by Bangladesh. Recently, a long-term electricity trade agreement has been signed with India to export 10,000 megawatts of electricity in 10 years.

Power cuts in industrial sector is a short-term problem : Authority

Posted on April 24, 2023April 24, 2023 by नेपाल राष्ट्रिय दैनिक

Kathmandu, April 24: Nepal Electricity Authority has said that the power cuts in the industrial sector is only a short-term problem.

Kulman Ghising, managing director of the authority, said that the problem in power supply has badly affected the industrial corridors in eastern Nepal. According to him, due to the weak transmission capacity of the cross-border transmission line during the dry season, it has become a problem to import enough electricity.

After the decline in domestic production, the Authority has been importing an average of 500 MW of electricity from India every day. Ghising said that about 400 MW of electricity is being imported from the transmission lines of Dhalkebar and Tanakpur and another 100 MW of electricity is being supplied from the infrastructure in Raxaul, Ramnagar and Kataiya.

After the decline in electricity supply, industrialists of Biratnagar have also protested against the state-owned electricity authority. Morang Traders Association, an umbrella organization of the private sector, has alleged that the irresponsible action of the authority has caused a huge financial loss.

On the other hand, the authority has said that due to a significant decrease in domestic electricity production, the electricity supply had to be stopped. According to Ghisingh, the power generation has reached only 30.35 percent of the actual installed capacity. The local power house has been supplying only 700 megawatts of electricity, while we are importing about 500 megawatts from India.

The authority’s records show that currently the maximum demand for electricity is 1,700 MW, while the average demand is 1,300 MW. Ghising said that the demand for industrial units has increased this year after the authority approved an additional 800 MW this year.

Meanwhile, the authority aims to export up to 1,000 megawatts of electricity to India in the coming year.

An additional 22 MW of electricity will be exported to India

Posted on November 3, 2022November 3, 2022 by नेपाल राष्ट्रिय दैनिक

The Nepal Electricity Authority has received permission to export 22 MW of electricity to India.

The Nepal Electricity Authority has said that 22 megawatts of electricity produced by Chilime Hydropower Company Limited will be exported to India. According to the authority, 386 megawatts of electricity will be exported to India every day, including Chilime. The Nepal Electricity Authority had already offered to sell an additional 100.9 megawatts of monsoon electricity consumed domestically in the day-ahead market of the Indian Energy Exchange Limited through competition.

The Authority has started selling the excess electricity consumed within the country through competition in the day-ahead market of the Indian Energy Exchange Limited from last 19thJestha 2079 BS. and has also advanced the electricity export process of the hydropower projects built by the private sector.

Charging stations for EVs to be established in collaboration with APF

Posted on August 26, 2022August 26, 2022 by नेपाल राष्ट्रिय दैनिक

A memorandum of understanding has been signed between the Armed Police Force and the Nepal Electricity Authority regarding the construction and operation of an electric vehicle charging station.

The MoU was signed by Inspector General Raju Aryal on behalf of the Armed Police Force and Executive Director Kulman Ghising on behalf of the Authority in a program held at the Armed Police Headquarters Halchok on Friday.

According to the MoU, charging stations will be established at 17 locations including 2 petrol pumps currently operated by the Armed Police Welfare Center and 15 suitable locations of Armed Police offices. The charging station will be operated under the welfare fund in the long run.

According to the MoU, the authority will purchase all the equipment and build the infrastructure of the charging station at its own expense. Repair and regular servicing of the equipment will also be done by the authority itself. The Armed Police will provide a suitable location for the construction of the infrastructure and after construction, will operate and protect the charging station. It has been arranged that charging stations cannot be allowed to be operated by third parties/organizations.

While operating the charging station, the authority should make arrangements to allow the general public to use it easily at the rate determined by the authority. The authority will collect the fee paid by the consumer while charging the vehicle. According to the provisions of the Electricity Distribution Regulations, the Welfare Center of the Armed Police will receive 50 percent of the total profit from the electricity tariff rate as operating and management expenses of the charging station.

The authority is constructing the stations that can charge quickly at 51 locations across the country to encourage the use of electric vehicles. Every charging station being constructed by the authority will be equipped with a 142 kW charger, a 50 kVA transformer for power supply, and an online billing system.

Fast charging 60 kilowatt DC and 22 kilowatt AC chargers will be placed at the charging station. With this, three vehicles including a big bus can be charged simultaneously.

The software of the charging station will be kept in the authority’s data center which can serve more than 300 chargers. All 50 stations will be controlled from Kathmandu. After charging the vehicle, the customer can pay the bill through the QR code and mobile app.

Earlier,A memorandum of understanding has already been signed between the Authority and the Nepal Police to establish charging stations at 25 different places.

Export of electricity to India started

Posted on June 2, 2022June 2, 2022 by नेपाल राष्ट्रिय दैनिक

Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has started exporting electricity from Trishuli and Devighat hydropower plants to India. In India’s competitive energy exchange market , Nepal has its electricity for sale in a ‘block’ every 15 minutes.

Although electricity for each block is sold at different prices, India has set a limit of Rs 12 per unit. Although the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) will get a maximum price of up to Rs 12, electricity will be sold at an average price of 6.28 Indian rupees (10 rupees 4 paise Nepali rupees) per unit. NEA is also preparing electricity for sale of Kaligandaki A Hydropower Project.

Nepal had sought approval from Indian companies for the sale of 200 MW of electricity after receiving approval for the sale of up to 364 MW of electricity in the Indian market. NEA has also called for tenders to sell the electricity stored in Nepal during the rainy season in India. NEA has prepared to export the surplus electricity through Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur 400 KV inter-country transmission line.

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