Nepal has requested India to provide additional power through two newly-built transmission lines as part of the country's efforts to end load-shedding.
In a meeting with India's Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal, Nepal's Ambassador in New Delhi Deep Kumar Upadhaya requested India to expedite supply of electricity through 132kV Kushaha-Kataiya and 132kV Raxual-Parwanipur cross-border transmission lines, Kathmandu Post reported.
"During the meeting, issues relating to the supply of additional power through the newly built transmission lines, review of tariff at which India is selling power to Nepal, and Nepal-India cooperation in the power sector were discussed," said Hari Odari, spokesman of the Nepal Embassy in New Delhi.
"Minister Goyal has assured that he will instruct concerned agencies in India to expedite the process," he said.
They have reached an understanding to arrange a meeting between Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA), the state-owned power utility, and Power Trade Cooperation of India to settle all technical issues related to supply of power to Nepal.
NEA has already requested India to provide 50 MW of electricity through each of these two transmission lines. It is planning to supply electricity bought from India to industrial corridors in Nepal.
Hydropower generation in Nepal has plunged by almost 60 per cent as the water level in most of the river basins has fallen due to onset of the dry season.
As a result, NEA is relying heavily on the electricity bought from India to keep the country free from power cuts.
To bridge the gap, Nepal is currently importing around 380MW of electricity from India through various cross-border transmission lines.
The country's peak electricity demand hovers at 1,240 MW.
NEA has managed to end power outages by cutting off power supply to energy-intensive industries during peak electricity consumption hours.
Nepal, home to around 6,000 rivers, rivulets and tributaries, has the potential to generate over 40 GW of electricity through hydropower, nut as of now, its installed capacity stands at less than 1,000 MW.
There is a big gap in demand and supply of electricity because Nepal has not been able to build bigger hydropower plants since the 70MW Middle Marsyangdi Hydroe-lectric Project, located in Lamjung, came into operation in 2008.