Bangladesh plans to export power to Nepal

• 5 years ago (2019-01-14)
• David Flin

Asia 859 Transmission 181

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The Bangladesh Government has announced that it will initiate a process to export surplus electricity to Nepal during winter months, when Bangladesh has a fall in levels of domestic consumption. The Bangladesh Power Ministry said that the electricity export to Nepal will take place under the cross-border trade requiring a tripartite agreement between Bangladesh, India, and Nepal.

Bangladesh is trying to import electricity from its neighbours, including Bhutan and Myanmar, to meet demand during the summer.

Officials from the Power Ministry had initially planned to import power from Nepal by setting up hydropower plants there. They now say that the opportunity for mutual exchange, importing in summer and exporting in winter, is under consideration. This is possible because the electricity demand pattern in Nepal is the inverse of that in Bangladesh.

Mohammad Hossain, Director General of Power Cell, a technical wing of the Bangladesh Power Ministry, said that it will be very difficult to achieve the target before the end of this winter, as huge infrastructural development will be required to exchange electricity between Bangladesh and Nepal.