Money & Finance
The state-owned Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) traded surplus electricity worth Rs 11.16 billion at a competitive rate in the Indian market between June 2 to December 18 of this fiscal year.
The NEA has sold around 1.36 billion units of electricity in the 'day-ahead market' of the Indian Energy Exchange Limited (IEX).
Indian Rs6.97 billion has entered Nepal through power sales as the electricity trade with India is done in the Indian currency. This has also contributed to increasing the country's foreign currency reserves.
The NEA started selling electricity in the IEX, following the addition of 39 megawatts of power from two hydroelectricity plants. Taking power generated from six hydroelectricity plants as the source, the state utility has been exporting 364 megawatts to the Indian market since June 10.
The NEA received permission to export power from two additional hydroelectricity plants on November 4 and 16. That will take approved power export to India to 408 megawatts from eight hydroelectricity powerhouses as the source.
The NEA made an income of Rs2.84 billion from the export of more than 299 million units of electricity in the previous quarter (May 15 to July 16). It has earned more than Rs 8.32 billion through the export of around 1.6 billion units of power between July 17 and December 18.
Meanwhile, NEA Managing Director Kulman Ghising said power export had been stopped following the decrease in power production from the run-of-the-river type projects with the drop in water levels in the rivers and increasing domestic demand with the onset of winter.
