At a time when Nepal’s surplus electricity generation is a matter of concern for the policymakers, the recent efforts taken by Secretary of Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Dinesh Kumar Ghimire brings some respite.

Organized by the World Bank, Power secretary of India promised to look at Nepal’s request positively and has committed to have a separate one to one meeting with Nepal’s energy secretary to resolve all the issues at a round table meeting of South Asian Power Secretaries.

Secretary of Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Ghimire has proposed to India to make interim arrangements for Nepal to participate in the Indian competitive market saying that approval for CBR is going to take time due to ongoing pandemic.

Taking part at a South Asian Power secretary-level round table discussion on the effect of COVID-19, Ghimire also requested with his Indian counterpart to make necessary arrangements for the PCR test of Indian experts who need to come to Dhalkebar substation to test and commission the 400 kV substation.

He also requested the finalization of a shareholder agreement between NEA and PGCIL was discussed which paves the way to get our cabinet approval soon and to expedite the establishment of JV company in India.

He thanked the secretary of India for his generous support in facilitating the movement of vehicles with construction equipment being brought to Nepal

Having spent his entire carrier in the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Secretary Dinesh Kumar Ghimire knows what he needs to do from the policy perspective.

As an electric engineer by profession, secretary Ghimire’s well aware of the loss of energy in case of a proper market for it. This is the reason he is very much concerned about the market.

As COVID-19 will likely affect Nepal’s industrial sector, Nepal needs to search a market for its surplus electricity from the coming year.

At a time when Nepal is going to generate the surplus electricity from the coming year, the need of the hour is to have access to a market for the surplus electricity in the near future.

Along with the guarantee of access to market Nepal needs the cross border transmission line to evacuate the electricity to the market. As India is Nepal’s largest market, secretary Ghimire has been pursuing his Indian counterpart to support Nepal to make this possible.

Ghimire said the completion of 400 kV substations will allow both the countries to transact an enhanced amount of power. Similarly, secretary Ghimire thanked the World Bank for approving DPC2 credit of 100 million US dollars.