The Himalayan country Nepal, is going to boost-up its power import from India to bridge the winter time demand-supply gap. Adding to its existing 350MW import, Nepal will take another additional 25MW from India as per the power purchase agreement signed between the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) and the NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Ltd. of India.
The additional intake of power will take place through the cross-country transmission line between and Muzaffarpur in Indian state Bihar and Dhalkebar in Nepal, at the existing tariff of INR 3.6 per unit. Theoretically Nepal has a gigantic hydropower potential of over 83,000 MW, but Nepal’s Economically feasible potential is 43,000 MW. But its existing capacity is less than 1000MW. Against peak demand of around 950MW, the country’s production during dry winter goes as low as 450MW due to lack of water flow along the streams forcing the country to import power from India. Eventually, the policy for transmission lines used to import this power always remains in Nepal priority list.
Nepal imports total 350MW from India through four cross-country lines. 30MW goes through Tanakpur-Mahendranagar, 25MW goes through Ramnagar-Gandak transmission lines, Kataiya-Kushhawa line carries 120MW, and 25MW goes through Ramnagar-Gandak transmission lines. Remaining 120MW is procured by Nepal through its Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur line. This route is under capacity expansion process to have a handling capacity of 280 MW.
Nepal to Boost-Up Power Import from India
