Bangladesh called for 40 MW power purchase-sale agreement

Kathmandu. The Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) has written to the Nepal Electricity Authority to enter into an agreement for the purchase and sale of 40 MW of electricity produced in Nepal.
BPDB sent a letter on Monday for the electricity sale agreement, informing that the bid submitted by the authority for the sale of 40 megawatts of electricity for 6 months of the rainy season has been accepted by the relevant body.

According to the provisions of the law, on 16 January 2080, BPDB called for a tender for the purchase of 40 megawatts of electricity produced from Nepal for a period of five years in accordance with the tripartite agreement between Bangladesh, India and Nepal.

The Authority had submitted the tender document with the rate of electricity to be sold in the prescribed format for the sale of electricity. BPDB informed the authority of its intention to accept the bid after evaluating the submitted bid documents and informing them that it has been accepted by the relevant authorities.

The Authority shall give a written notice of acceptance of the bid to BPDB within 7 working days. After that, BPDB will provide the draft power sale agreement to the authority. The agreement should be concluded within 28 days of receiving the draft. There will be a tripartite agreement between the authority, NTPC Power Trading Corporation (NVVN), India and BPDB.

Kulman Ghising, executive director of the authority, said that after completing all the remaining processes, the work has been started to export electricity to Bangladesh from this monsoon season. “Since the three bodies have agreed on the draft of the tripartite electricity sale agreement, the agreement will be reached soon, then we will send the list of projects to the Central Electricity Authority of India for Bangladesh electricity export approval. Since it will take time for approval when sending new projects, the electricity produced from the projects that have already received electricity export approval in India will be exported to Bangladesh. We will send the proposal for approval.’

The Authority has prepared to export the electricity produced by the 25 MW Trishuli and 22 MW Chileme hydropower projects built through its subsidiary company, built with Indian subsidy, to Bangladesh. Both of these are projects that have received approval for electricity export in India.

The authority will sell 40 megawatts of electricity to Bangladesh for 6 months of the rainy season, i.e. from 15 June to 15 November every year for five years. The authority will get 6.40 US cents per unit by selling electricity to Bangladesh.
The authority will get the price of electricity exported to Bangladesh through the first international Dhalkebar-Muzaffarpur 400 kV transmission line between Nepal and India at the Muzaffarpur point in India. In other words, the meter of electricity exported to Bangladesh will be in Muzaffarpur. The authority will bear the technical leakage of the transmission line from Dhalkebar to Muzaffarpur. Electricity will reach Bangladesh through Bahrampur (India)-Vermara (Bangladesh) 400 kV transmission line from Muzaffarpur through India’s transmission line.

Kulman Ghisingh, the executive director of the authority, said that Bangladesh will bear all the taxes and fees including transmission line fees, leakages, trading margin taken by NVVN after the Muzaffarpur point.