Nepal Electricity Winter crisis: NEA plans to light up Nepali homes with Indian energy
Kathmandu: The Nepal Electricity Authority is planning to buy electricity from the Indian market under a six-month contract to meet the domestic demand market for power in winter.
The step will be taken at the time as Nepal’s run-of-river hydropower projects dwindle.
By issuing a tender notice, the state-owned power utility body said that it would buy up to 365MW from Indian power traders from December 1 this year to May 31, next year, read The Kathmandu Post report.
The NEA plans to take delivery of 300MW from the Muzaffarpur substation through the Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur cross-border transmission line and an additional 65MW through the Tanakpur substation. The electricity will be bought round-the-clock, the notice states.
Though Nepal has been exporting electricity currently because of surplus production by the hydropower projects fed by monsoon-swollen rivers, it has to import in the winter when water levels in the rivers fall and the plants produce in the range of 30-40 percent of their installed capacity.
Currently, the total installed capacity of Nepal’s power projects stands at around 2,200MW while peak hour demand for electricity on Wednesday stood at 1866MW, according to the NEA.
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