KATHMANDU, Dec 21: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) exported electricity worth Rs 8.32 billion to India in the first five months of the current financial year. NEA exported 58.6 million units of electricity to India till December 18 of the current year. Kulman Ghising, managing director of the NEA, said that due to the cold weather, the demand for electricity in various places including the Kathmandu Valley has increased, and the export of electricity to India has come to a halt.

"Due to the increase in cold, the demand for electricity has increased in the Kathmandu Valley and other areas, but due to the decrease in water flow in the rivers, the production of electricity by the run-of-river based hydropower projects has decreased. So, the export of electricity has been stopped," Ghising said. He added that the export of electricity will start again by the end of April to the first week of May.

"Due to the decrease in production in the country, daily electricity imports have started to meet the domestic demand. Our forecast is that the electricity import will continue for about four months, but the amount of electricity import will be less than the export," said Ghising. "In previous years, electricity exports were less than imports, so from this year, exports will be more and imports will be less." The 24 hours for buying and selling electricity 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 varies. The average rate of electricity exported by the authority till December 18 is Rs 8.22 per unit.

The authority said that during the seven months including May and June in the last financial year, electricity worth over Rs 11.16 billion was exported to India. The authority had started selling surplus electricity to India through competition in the day-ahead market of Indian Energy Exchange Limited (IX) from June 2, 2022.

 
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