PDB to sign hydropower import deal with Nepal
STAFF REPORTER
The Bangladesh Power Development Board (PDB) is likely to sign a power purchase agreement (PPA) with the GMR Upper Karnali Hydropower Ltd, a subsidiary of the GMR Energy India, to import 300 MW of electricity from Nepal by the end of this month.
A Bangladesh government team is scheduled to visit the project site in western Nepal and start PPA negotiations with the developer next week, sources said.
A MoU between the PDB and the GMR Upper Karnali Hydropower Ltd was signed during Prime Minister Sheikh Hasinas visit to India in April this year.
In May, the PDB wanted to appoint an experienced consultant to negotiate with Indias NTPC Vidyut Vyapar Nigam Limited for importing hydroelectricity from Nepal.
Indias new guidelines, issued in December 2016, does not allow neighbouring countries to import electricity directly from another neighbouring country through India, said PDB officials. Instead, India wants to facilitate such trans-border trade of electricity through its own agencies that will buy electricity from a neighbouring country and sell it to another neighbour under separate bilateral agreements.
A senior PDB official told The Independent they have already written to the Power Division secretary to appoint a consultant, but the decision has still remained pending.
The Bangladesh government team, which would visit the Nepal project site to begin negotiations, would not, however, finalise the deal, the PDB official said.
Meanwhile, The Kathmundu Post, a Nepalese daily, quoted Harvinder Manocha, chief operating officer of GMR Energy, as having said that the team from Bangladesh would visit Nepal soon to expedite negotiations.
It is clearly written in the MoU that the energy that NVVN will supply to Bangladesh will come from Upper Karnali. The tariff rate will be mutually finalised by GMR and Bangladesh, said Manocha.
Bangladesh has repeatedly shown interest in importing electricity from Nepal via India and has raised the issue at meetings of the sub-regional BBIN (Bhutan, Bangladesh, India and Nepal) Initiative taken up by the four countries to facilitate regional trade and business.
Bangladesh has also shown interest in investing in Nepals hydropower sector under the same framework agreement.
The interest was first expressed during the ninth South Asia Economic Summit in Dhaka last October.
Commerce minister Tofail Ahmed and then commerce minister of Nepal Romi Gauchan Thakali signed an agreement to build two hydroelectric plants capable of generating over 1,600 MW of electricity in Nepal.
The proposed projects are 1,110 MW Sunkoshi II and 536 MW Sunkoshi III on the Sunkoshi river in central Nepal. The two countries agreed to develop the projects under the BBIN Initiative.
