The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) is facing difficulty in importing electricity from India due to the rise in power price in India.
NEA Spokesperson Suresh Bhattarai said that price of electricity has risen by almost five times in India due to lack of coal and the global rise in price of petroleum products following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“We used to procure electricity at IRs 5 per unit earlier. But we could not get as much as we wanted even while trying to buy at IRs 9 on Tuesday,” he stated. “Those who paid IRs 11 got to buy yesterday.”
Power is traded at a fluid rate in India and the price has risen up to IRs 20 per unit in recent days. The NEA sells electricity to its consumers at Rs 10 per unit.
“It is becoming difficult for the NEA to procure electricity as the rate has become very expensive in India,” he conceded. “There will be no load-shedding for normal consumers as we generate our own electricity. But the industrial sector may not get as much electricity as demanded.”
The NEA has been currently procuring around 400 MW of electricity during the peak hours from India. It procures most of that from the open market while some is being procured from bodies under Indian states.
The NEA has been operating Kulekhani and Tamakoshi projects at full capacity in the evening peak hours after imported electricity became expensive.
