In the rainy season last year, the country’s electricity spillage reached as high as 800 MW during the festive period in October and November. With industrial power demand declining sharply due to the closure of industries during the holiday season, the domestic energy demand fell to as low as 700 MW.
Till last year, the total installed capacity of Nepal’s power projects was more than 2,200 MW while Indian authorities had granted approval to export 364 MW from Nepal. Now, Nepal’s generation capacity has already reached nearly 2,700 MW which requires more exports to India to avoid spillage in the rainy season when power plants start generating power at their full capacity. “Approval process is undergoing not only to sell power in India’s day-ahead market but also for selling 200MW under the five-year-long power purchase agreement,” said Kul Man Ghising, Managing Director of NEA at a press meet on Sunday. “We are hopeful that the Indian authorities will grant approval for more power projects to sell power before spillage takes place.” He said that NEA is not worried about the power spillage at least for a month with the current generation not being enough even to export the currently approved 452.6 MW. “At least until mid-August, rainfalls remain erratic and power generation also remains unstable,” said Ghising adding that the hydropower plants would be able to produce at their full capacity on a daily basis from mid-August to November. Starting from June 12, Nepal resumed exporting power to India regularly as continuous rainfalls increased water levels in the rivers helping power projects to generate more electricity. With the late arrival of the monsoon, regular export of power to India resumed late compared to last year when Nepal had started exporting power from June 2. Monsoon clouds arrived in the country in the middle of June after Nepal witnessed a prolonged drought this year. However, the country's power generation capacity is rising along with the completion of one after another power projects. The country’s power generation capacity is expected to rise to 2,853 MW by the end of the current fiscal year, according to NEA. The projected peak domestic demand for power in the current fiscal year is 2,036 MW. “The country is expected to produce surplus energy of 1,000 MW in this wet season,” said Ghising. “But in the night time, power demands are lower and the country has to export more power compared to other times.” By the end of the next fiscal year 2023/24, the country’s electricity generation capacity is expected to rise further to 4,507 MW and to 5,251 MW by the end of fiscal 2024/25. Besides increasing domestic consumption, boosting exports will be required to ensure that power is not spilled. “For this, it is necessary to invest heavily in improving domestic transmission and distribution networks and cross-border power lines,” said Ghising. He said that electricity could be a leading export product for the country contributing to reducing the ballooning trade deficit of the country. Nepal exported power worth over Rs 11bn in the last wet season. “There is scope for increased earnings from exporting power in the upcoming years,” said Ghising.
