KATHMANDU, July 1: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has sold electricity worth Rs 1.72 billion at a competitive rate in the Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) market.
The NEA started selling the surplus rainy season electricity at IEX from June 2. Initially, 39 MW of electricity from two power houses was sold daily at IEX. Since then, 364 MW of electricity is being sold at a competitive rate in the Indian market on a daily basis starting June 10.
The NEA has received approval from the Central Electricity Authority (NEA) under the Ministry of Power of India to sell 364 MW of electricity generated from six hydropower projects in the IEX market.
Nepal has sold 178.19 million units of electricity in the Indian market in June. From which, NEA has earned Rs 1.72 billion by deducting all charges from the electricity sold in India during this period. The average rate of electricity sold in the competitive market in June is Rs 9.67 per unit.
Electricity worth Rs 2.15 billion exported to India in last 45...
In IEX market, 24 hours are divided into 96 blocks of 15 respectively and electricity is traded at competitive rates fixed by the market. Therefore, the price of each block is different.
NEA received the highest average rate of electricity sales during this period on June 15. The average rate per unit that day was Rs 15.93. The lowest average rate was on June 21 with the average rate of Rs 4.92 per unit.
During this period, the lowest amount of electricity worth Rs 5.667 million was sold on June 3. The highest sales of Rs 72.8 million was made on June 14. On that day, 7.8 million units of electricity was sold.
NEA Managing Director Kulman Ghising said that electricity trade in the Indian competitive market, which Nepal started last year, has moved forward more effectively from this year. "Looking at the amount of electricity exported in the month and the sale price obtained from it, the electricity trade with India has moved forward effectively,” he said. "This will help reduce some of Nepal's trade deficit with India and also contribute to the country's balance of payments savings."
He said that the export of electricity is projected to be around Rs 5 billion in the current fiscal year and around Rs 20 billion in the coming year. He said that electricity trade with India would help in the development of hydropower in Nepal. Ghising said that the first priority is to consume electricity within the country and for that, the state needs to increase investment in the infrastructure of transmission and distribution systems.
