Staff Reporter :
The Power Development Board (PDB) now looks for an internationally reputed consultant firm to build the board’s capacity for negotiations with India to import hydroelectricity from Nepal.
Bangladesh wants to import around 300-500 megawatt (MW) hydropower from the Himalayan country by the end of this year.
PDB will prepare a draft agreement after examining some technical and legal matters in transborder power trade, as such import is supposed to be done through India.
Through a recent letter, this board informed the Power Division Secretary that the National Thermal Power Company (NTPC) and Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN) of India would soon send a draft power sales agreement to the PDB for exporting the hydropower to be generated by India’s GMR Upper Karneli Hydropower Limited in Nepal.
On April 10, during a state visit by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to New Delhi, the power board signed a memorandum of understanding with NVVN, the Indian agency which would buy electricity from GMR at Nepal-India border and sell it to the power board at India-Bangladesh border.
Meanwhile, the Indian power ministry set guidelines on power export, as cross-border trade of electricity had long been taking place with Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal under bilateral memorandum of understanding and other deals. India enforced its new guidelines, issued in December 2016, which does not allow neighbouring countries to import electricity directly from another neighbouring country through India, said 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 other neighbour under separate bilateral agreements, they said.
The power board letter also said that two power purchase and sales agreements between the PDB and the NVVN and that between NVVN and GMR would be finalized soon.
PDB also proposed a set of terms of reference (ToR) for the consultant it is now looking for, which includes among other things tariff structure, assumptions and pricing mechanism as per international best practices for hydropower imports.
The proposed ToR also includes assisting the power board in the negotiations for finalising the commercial terms and conditions of the agreement and advising the board regarding laws, guidelines and regulatory issues of India, Nepal and Bangladesh which are to be followed for importing the electricity from Nepal.
Pursuing its ‘bilateral’ negotiation policy, India issued the guideline at a time when Dhaka planned to invest in Nepal and Bhutan to build hydropower facilities there, mainly to transmit the electricity to Bangladesh through India.
The Power Development Board (PDB) now looks for an internationally reputed consultant firm to build the board’s capacity for negotiations with India to import hydroelectricity from Nepal.
Bangladesh wants to import around 300-500 megawatt (MW) hydropower from the Himalayan country by the end of this year.
PDB will prepare a draft agreement after examining some technical and legal matters in transborder power trade, as such import is supposed to be done through India.
Through a recent letter, this board informed the Power Division Secretary that the National Thermal Power Company (NTPC) and Vidyut Vyapar Nigam (NVVN) of India would soon send a draft power sales agreement to the PDB for exporting the hydropower to be generated by India’s GMR Upper Karneli Hydropower Limited in Nepal.
On April 10, during a state visit by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to New Delhi, the power board signed a memorandum of understanding with NVVN, the Indian agency which would buy electricity from GMR at Nepal-India border and sell it to the power board at India-Bangladesh border.
Meanwhile, the Indian power ministry set guidelines on power export, as cross-border trade of electricity had long been taking place with Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal under bilateral memorandum of understanding and other deals. India enforced its new guidelines, issued in December 2016, which does not allow neighbouring countries to import electricity directly from another neighbouring country through India, said 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 other neighbour under separate bilateral agreements, they said.
The power board letter also said that two power purchase and sales agreements between the PDB and the NVVN and that between NVVN and GMR would be finalized soon.
PDB also proposed a set of terms of reference (ToR) for the consultant it is now looking for, which includes among other things tariff structure, assumptions and pricing mechanism as per international best practices for hydropower imports.
The proposed ToR also includes assisting the power board in the negotiations for finalising the commercial terms and conditions of the agreement and advising the board regarding laws, guidelines and regulatory issues of India, Nepal and Bangladesh which are to be followed for importing the electricity from Nepal.
Pursuing its ‘bilateral’ negotiation policy, India issued the guideline at a time when Dhaka planned to invest in Nepal and Bhutan to build hydropower facilities there, mainly to transmit the electricity to Bangladesh through India.
