Process on to export electricity to Nepal

Hossen Sohel of DOT
The government will soon initiate a process to export surplus electricity to neighbouring country Nepal in the winter when Bangladesh sees a drop in domestic consumption, reports UNB.
According to official sources at the Power Ministry, the electricity export to Nepal will take place under the cross-border power trade where a tripartite agreement among the three neighbouring nations — Bangladesh, India and Nepal –will be required.
The cross-border power trade between Dhaka and New Delhi started few years back whereby Bangladesh is importing over 1,000 MW of electricity from India.
Dhaka is also trying to import electricity from its other neighbours, including Bhutan and Myanmar, to meet the demand during the summer season.
Officials said the Indian government’s recent approval of guidelines is seen as a major development in the Bangladesh’s initiative to achieve its target for power export-import trade with Nepal.
Officials said Bangladesh has initially planned to import power from Nepal through setting up hydropower plants there. But now it sees a major opportunity for exporting electricity to Nepal in the winter as well as before the start of its electricity import from the Himalayan nation.
The demand-curve of electricity in Nepal is just reverse of Bangladesh.
Officials said the demand for power increases in the Himalayan nation in the winter with the drop in the mercury whereas it sees a rise in Bangladesh for cool weather.
Similarly, the demand goes up in the summer in Bangladesh while dips in Nepal.
“Bangladesh mainly wants to take this advantage to export additional electricity to Nepal in the winter season and also import electricity from the Himalayan country in the summer season when they need less power,” said Mohammad Hossain, director general of Power Cell, a technical wing of the Power Ministry.