KATHMANDU: Kul Man Ghising led, state owned, Nepal Electricity Authority, has managed to earn Rs 2.42 billion worth of electricity to India in the second month of current fiscal year (FY) 2022-23.
Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has exported 246.65 million units of electricity to India in August and earned Rs 2.42 billion form the electricity sells. The authority started selling the surplus monsoon electricity consumed within the country through competition in the day-ahead market of Indian Energy Exchange Limited (IEX) from June 2, 2022.
In the beginning, 39 megawatts of electricity produced by two power plants was considered as a source to export and was sold to IEX on a daily basis. Since then, 364 megawatts of electricity produced by six hydropower plants has been sold daily in the Indian market at a competitive rate since June 10.
The NEA has earned 7.19 billion rupees by selling 787.8 million units of electricity in the Indian market between May 15 to September 16.
Since the electricity trade with India is done in Indian rupees, during the period of 4 months, 4.49 billion Indian rupees has been brought into Nepal from the sale of electricity in India.
Kulman Ghising, executive director of the NEA, said that the amount received from the increase in electricity export every month is contributing to the foreign exchange reserves of Nepal and reducing the trade deficit between the two countries.
Ghising said, “In the current fiscal year, we have set a target of earning about 16 billion rupees from the export of electricity. If we can export electricity by the first week of November, we estimate that the target will be met when the export starts again after May.”
“Now that the festival is about to start, the internal consumption will decrease a bit when the industrial factories are closed, but since our production will be at full capacity, we have sent a proposal for approval for the export of about 200 megawatts of electricity. We are confident that the Indian side will give approval for the export of more electricity soon.”
In IEX, 24 hours are divided into 96 blocks of 15-15 minutes and electricity is traded at a competitive rate set by the market. Therefore, the price of each block is different. The average rate of electricity exported by the authority in August is Rs 9.80 per unit.