Buoyed by continuous rainfall this year, Nepal is exporting surplus electricity to India through its power exchange market for the second consecutive year, the state-owned power utility body said on Friday. Nepal has started exporting 39 MW of electricity to India from midnight of Thursday due to the continuous rainfall in recent months, state-owned Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) said on Thursday. “We started selling 39 MW of electricity to Indian buyers from midnight of Thursday. The electricity is generated from Trishuli and Devghat Power Station through Dhalkebar-Mujaffarpur transmission line,” NEA Deputy Managing Director Pradeep Thike told PTI. The electricity is being exported to India under the Nepal-India power exchange agreement, Mr Thike said. The power utility body is also in the process of acquiring permission to sell 144 MW of electricity from the Kaligandaki Hydroproject, by which it would be able to export additional power from Saturday, Mr Thike explained.
On April 6, India allowed the NEA to sell additional 325 MW of electricity generated from four hydel projects—Kali Gandaki (144MW), Middle Marsyangdi (70MW), and Marsyangdi (69MW) — all developed by the NEA, and Likhu 4 Hydropower Project with 52.4MW capacity, developed by the private sector. This is the second year in a row that the Himalayan nation is selling electricity to India through its exchange market. NEA had traded 39 MW power generated from the same hydropower projects, 24 MW from Trishuli hydropower and 15 MW from Devighat powerhouse, in the IEX in November. However, it halted the export of electricity to India due to the shortage of power in the Himalayan nation during the dry season.