Nepal, Bangladesh ink MoU on hydropower exchange

Nepal and Bangladesh today inked an Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on power exchange cooperation to allow export of hydro power from the Himalayan nation to Bangladesh in the near future.

The signing of the MoU took place in a ceremony here attended by Nepal's Energy Minister Barsha Man Pun and Minister of State for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources of Bangladesh, Nasrul Hamid.

During the occasion, Hamid announced that Bangladesh is interested to invest around USD1 billion for power sector cooperation with Nepal.

Bangladesh has set the target of graduating to the league of developed nations by 2041 and it would need around 60,000 MW power to meet the target, Hamid was quoted as saying by the Himalayan Times.

Nepal is an appropriate alternative source for this (hydro power), said the report.

Hamid said that Bangladesh has projected that by 2040 the demand for power in the nation will reach around 40,000 MW, of which around 11 per cent would be fulfilled through clean energy sources, including hydropower.

Nepalese Energy Minister Pun said that the government of Bangladesh is willing to immediately purchase 500 MWs of power from Nepal as part of the MoU.

The energy ministers of the two nations said that they will also hold talks with India on the issues of transmission lines.

As part of the Nepal-Bangladesh MoU, a power secretary level joint executive committee and a joint secretary level joint technical group will be constituted. The groups will meet every year to have deliberations and take forward the issue related to the bilateral cooperation in the power sector.

The two bodies will also convene their meetings within the coming two months to determine the future course of action.

In the recent times, Nepal has signed bilateral agreements with India and China on energy cooperation.

The Bangladesh minister informed that the issue of a regional grid connectivity will also feature during the 4th summit of BIMSTEC that is scheduled to be held later this month.