India has allowed Nepal to sell electricity generated through two hydropower projects in its real-time energy market starting Saturday midnight, according to the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA).

It is for the first time that India granted project-wise approval ensuring that Nepal could sell hydroelectricity in India’s Real-Time Market (RTM).

The Central Electricity Authority of India has allowed the trading of 44 MW of electricity generated from the 19.4 MW Lower Modi and 24.25 MW Kabeli B-1 hydropower projects in the real-time market in the first phase, according to Suresh Bahadur Bhattarai, the spokesperson at the NEA.

Bhattarai said approval had been received for the sale of electricity from two projects in both the day-ahead and the real-time markets.

“Earlier, we had to wait for a day for the import and export of electricity,” said Bhattarai.

"Now we can trade by bidding just one hour and fifteen minutes before the sale. Now we can buy or sell power in case of a sudden shutdown or an increase in electricity generation,” said Bhattarai.

“We can expect that other projects, which have got approval for the day-ahead market, will also be able to sell power in RTM in the day ahead,” he said.

“We expect that the Indian authorities would grant permission to sell power from new projects in both day-ahead and real-time markets at the earliest,” Bhattarai added.

However, the projects that have received approval for selling power in the day-ahead market need to get renewed every year.

Nepal is currently selling 13,000 MW of electricity to India on a daily basis.

India has been allowing Nepal to sell its power in its day-ahead market since November 2021.

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