Kathmandu, November 15: The Nepal Electricity Authority is exporting 40 megawatts of electricity to Bangladesh via India today.
With India's final approval, electricity will be exported to Bangladesh.
"We have received approval from India. We are ready to export electricity on Friday," said Chandan Ghosh, head of the Load Dispatch Center of the NEA.
The 40 MW power will be transmitted from Nepal to Bangladesh using the Indian grid starting from 12 noon on Friday with the virtual participation of the energy ministers of Nepal, India and Bangladesh.
A tripartite agreement has already been signed between Nepal Electricity Authority, Bangladesh Power Development and Power Trading Corporation of India. The agreement has approved for exporting Nepal's electricity to Bangladesh using Indian transmission lines.
BPDB had agreed to purchase 40 megawatts of electricity produced from Nepal for five years as per the tripartite agreement between Bangladesh, India and Nepal.
The power generated from the 25 MW Trishuli and 22 MW Chilime hydropower projects, built with Indian subsidies, will be exported to Bangladesh. Both of these projects have been approved for export of electricity to India.
The price of electricity exported to Bangladesh through the first inter-country Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur 400 kV transmission line between Nepal and India will be received at Muzaffarpur point in India. That is, the meter of electricity exported to Bangladesh will remain in Muzaffarpur.
The technical leakage of the transmission line from Dhalkebar to Muzaffarpur will be detected by the authority. Electricity will reach Bangladesh through the Baharampur (India) -Bheramara (Bangladesh) 400 kV transmission line from Muzaffarpur through the transmission line in India.
Nepal can export electricity for five months from June 15 to November 15. 28,800 megawatts of electricity will be exported every month. The price per unit of electricity will be 6.4 cents.
As today is the last day for exporting electricity to Bangladesh according to the agreement, Nepal is exporting electricity for today only.
Although Nepal has started exporting electricity to India and Bangladesh, neither the NEA nor the Energy Ministry has informed about the net profit the country will earn.