India has allowed Nepal to sell the electricity generated by two of the Himalayan country’s hydropower projects in its real-time energy market, according to the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA).
On July 31, India had opened the door to Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh to participate in its real time energy market by amending the ‘Procedure for approval and facilitating import/export (cross border) of electricity by the designated authority’ issued in February 2021.
The Central Electricity Authority of India has allowed trading of 44 MW of electricity generated by the 19.4 MW Lower Modi and 24.25 MW Kabeli B-1 hydropower projects in the real-time market in the first phase. Approval has been received for the sale of electricity from two projects in both the day-ahead and the real-time markets. The projects that have received approval for selling power in the day-ahead market need to get permission or be renewed every year.
Since November 2021, India has allowed Nepal to sell its power in its day-ahead market. The hilly country has been allowed to sell 522 MW of electricity in this market.
India has also started buying power from Nepal under a medium-term five-year power deal since early September. Nepal sells 110 MW of electricity to Haryana through NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Limited, India’s nodal agency for bilateral electricity trade with neighbouring countries. The NEA sold electricity worth Rs. 5.43 billion in India during the first two months of the current fiscal.
