Nepal is considering to export 370 megawatt (MW) of electricity to India using low-capacity transmission lines, reported Kathmandu Post.
The land locked country decides to do this besides the existing only high-capacity 400kV Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur line as other under-construction high-capacity transmission lines have not been completed.
Nepal can export a maximum of 1,000 MW through the Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur Cross-Border Transmission and the two countries had agreed to transmit a maximum 800 MW during the Secretary-level Joint Steering Committee (JSC) meeting held in the western Indian state of Rajasthan in February.
But so far, the southern neighbour has allowed Nepal to export only up to 452.6 MW generated by its 10 hydropower projects.
During the JSC meeting, the two countries had also agreed to explore other small capacity cross power lines for the cross-border trading of electricity.
Currently, there are 11 lower capacity cross-border power lines between the two neighbours.
“We proposed to export around 70 MW through the 32 kV Mahendranagar-Tanakpur Transmission line,” said Prabal Adhikari, power trade director at the state-owned utility Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA).
So far, Nepal is using this cross-border transmission line only to import power from the southern neighbour.
During the last JSC meeting, the two sides agreed to conduct trading of 70 MW-80 MW through this power line.
On June 28, the NEA and PTC India Ltd signed an agreement to sell 300 MW of electricity to India by using existing lower capacity cross-border transmission lines connected with the eastern Indian state of Bihar and the internal power line of Bihar.