Preparations have been made to emphatically raise the agenda of energy banking during Prime Minister’s visit to India beginning tomorrow.
The concept of energy banking has been put in the priority list of the visit to store electric power in rainy season after the completion of mega projects such as Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower. The 456-Megawatt (MW) project being constructed by the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA)’s subsidiary company Upper Tamakoshi Project is set to be completed by mid-December this year.
Besides this, there are other mega hydro projects of Nepal which are likely to be completed this year. There is a high likelihood of importing power from India in winter as the power generated from the projects will go waste during the rainy season, so the energy banking concept has been taken into account, Spokesperson for Ministry of Energy, Hydropower and Irrigation, Joint Secretary Dinesh Ghimire shared and added that the issue will be featured in Nepal’s agenda in course of PM’s official visit.
The NEA has said that all the operating hydropower projects of Nepal produce full-fledged power in rainy season but the production reduces during winter so the concept of energy banking has been mooted for the management of energy.
Likewise, preparation has also been made to discuss the effects of India’s energy strategy in Nepal during the PM’s visit. India has come up with the energy master plan to purchase power from Nepali hydro projects only having ownership of Nepal government and investment of Indian companies. Nepal will urge Indian side to amend the master plan arguing that it is against the spirit of Nepal India Power Trade Agreement signed in 2014.
As the master plan did not enable environment for investment in energy sector in Nepal, the agenda will be emphatically raised in course of the visit, Ghimire added.
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