PTChronicle - October 2012 - PTC India Limited

the North East aide
Summarising Indo-Bhutan & Indo-Nepal Cross Border Power Trade
India has always envisaged and envisioned
multi-faceted relations with its neighbouring
counterparts in the Indian subcontinent by
promoting social, cultural and economic
cooperations. The Indo-Bhutan and Indo-Nepal
relations have strengthened over the recent past
with all endeavoring to achieve a sustainable
growth through Regional cooperation. The
Government of India on consistent pursuance for
meeting the energy security of the region has been
working to develop mutually beneficial projects
and supply strategies with both Bhutan and Nepal,
enabling them to earn through exports to power
trading market in India and allowing India to meet
its ever increasing demand for power.
The demand for energy in India has been on the
rise with the economy propelling to sustain growth
rate of 8-10%. The domestic energy resources
post power reforms in early 2000s are yet short
and inadequate in meeting power requirement of
the nation. Today, an established rationale exists
for reducing India’s reliance on thermal power
and increasing diversification of energy resources.
However, the share of hydro resources is declining
in the generation mix offered by generators in
India. This is a matter of concern as the Indian
subcontinent has a huge potential of hydro
resources that remains untapped. Also, India
needs to lead environment stewardship in South
Asian region by using cleaner sources of energy.
Recent commitments for cooperating in the
field of hydroelectric power through public and
private sector participation have encouraged
private investments in generation in Bhutan.
Nepal and India are also improving the interregional
transmission capacities through grid
augmentation. India aims to import 10000 MW
from Bhutan by 2020 withstanding the support in
cooperating with the latter in developing renewable
energy projects under CDM.
India is vying for opportunities in Bhutan and
Nepal for development of hydro projects under
joint ventures or public private partnerships or
wholly private participation. The Government of
India, Ministry of Power and Ministry of External
Affairs have authorized PTC as Nodal Agency for
Cross- Border trade in Electricity with Bhutan and
Nepal. Since the year 2002 of trade, PTC has been
playing this role with alacrity to the full satisfaction
of all stake holders. E-transfer of funds, guaranteed
payments, prompt handling of reconciliation and
other services offered to Bhutan are so far very
smooth and has not raised any issue of dispute.
For better understanding of the regional trade
between Indo-Bhutan and Indo-Nepal, one needs
to look at the milestones achieved so far.
Hydropower Exports from Bhutan
Bhutan and India are connected at varying voltage
levels from 11 KV to 400 KV transmission networks.
India has been purchasing power from Tala (1020
MW), Chhukha (336 MW) and Kurichhu (60 MW)
Hydro Plants, through PTC India Limited via
respective Long Term Power Purchase Agreement.
The total capacity of hydro developed so far in
Bhutan is about 1500 MW, which is less than 5% of
the total potential.
The table below details the energy export to
India (MUs)
Year Energy Exports to India (MUs)
2003-04 1751
2004-05 1735
2005-06 1762
2006-07 2963
2007-08 5234
2008-09 5883
2009-10 5334
2010-11 5569
2011-12 5275
Bhutan’s unexploited hydropower potential
exceeds 30,000 MW, with easily accessible sites
estimated at 10,000 MW with 60% load factor.
28 | PTCHRONICLE | OCTOBER 2012