Increases in trades of electricity in India

Presently, India exports electricity to Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar, while India imports power from Bhutan. However, sometimes India also exports power to Bhutan during lean hydro season. Import / Export of energy by India into/from these countries during the Financial Year 2019-20 (as on January, 2020)  iIndia has signed Memorandum of Understanding with Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Myanmar to inter-alia improve power connectivity with these neighbouring countries. The Ministry of Power issued the Guidelines on Cross Border Trade of Electricity on 05.12.2016, which was subsequently substituted by the ‘Guidelines for Import/Export (Cross Border) of Electricity-2018’ issued on 18.12.2018, to promote cross border trade of electricity with neighbouring countries. Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC) issued CERC (Cross Border Trade of Electricity) Regulations, 2019 on 8^th March 2019. Further to improve power connectivity with neighbouring countries, following interconnections are at various stages of implementation:-

• 400kV operation of Muzaffarpur (India) – Dhalkebar (Nepal) 400kV D/c line (operated at 220kV)
• Baharampur (India) – Bheramara (Bangladesh) 2^nd 400kV D/c line
• Alipurduar (India) – Jigmeling (Bhutan) 400kV D/c (Quad)  line
• Gorakhpur (India) – New Butwal (Nepal) 400kV D/c (Quad) line

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Sitamarhi (India) – Dhalkebar (Nepal) – Arun-3 HEP (Nepal) 400kV D/c (Quad) line

Nepal and Bangladesh are not using Indian Transmission Grid to trade power between two countries.

The trading arrangement for import/export of electricity with neighboring countries, including Nepal, Bhutan and Bangladesh would facilitate regional trade in power and help in meeting the requirement of power in the respective countries thereby moving towards greater energy security in the region.

India already has regional  power system integration with Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal through high voltage synchronous (Alternating Current) and asynchronous (High Voltage Direct Current) connections.  Learning from the best practices of advanced nations, the latest technologies like STATCOM, Voltage Source Converter based HVDC system, etc. have been deployed in the Indian grid as a continuous measure of improvement for facilitating power transfer with reliability amongst regional neighbouring countries.