KATHMANDU, Feb 28: India has paved the way for Nepal to export the surplus electricity to the Indian land, by endorsing the Procedure for Approval and Facilitating Import/Export (Cross Border) of Electricity.
The Indian authority after two years of issuing the guidelines on cross-border trade of electricity has endorsed the related procedures, providing the full-fledged implementation of the related laws to trade electricity from its neighboring countries including Nepal. According to the Central Electricity Authority of the Government of India, the procedure came online on Friday.
Paving the Way for Regional Energy Cooperation
The provision has now cleared the way for Nepal to sell its surplus energy produced mainly during the peak production season. Nepal and India entered into a Power Trade Agreement in 2014. However, in the absence of the necessary law, the agreement had failed to come online. Due to the reason, Nepal has been facing wastage of up to 200 MW daily of the produced electricity.
The enforced law talks about providing energy trade access to India and its neighbouring countries through bilateral agreements at government level, through bidding route, through mutual agreements between entities or tripartite agreements. Also, it facilitates cross-border trade of electricity in a manner that ensures reliable, secure and stable operation of the interconnected grid and does not jeopardize grid security at any point of time.
Also, it maintains that a participating entity having a generating station located in a neighbouring country may develop, operate and maintain a dedicated transmission system from the generating station to the pooling station within India at its own cost after obtaining all the necessary approvals from respective countries.
