India Plans to Import Power From Neighboring Countries

May 20, 2008 - Xinhua News Agency - CEIS

India is framing a policy for importing power from neighboring countries to overcome the peaking shortage, local newspaper the Hindu reported Monday.

India considers Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar as natural markets for hydroelectricity. According to the calculations, these three countries have a hydropower potential of about 140 thousand MW, of which just about less than 3,000 MW is now being exploited.

The overriding objective of the policy should be "securing energy resources in these countries for our future in a framework based on sound commercial principles and which is beneficial to both parties in the long run," the report quoted the highly placed sources as saying.

The policy for importing power from neighbors would cover long- term power purchase agreements, tariff mechanism, a nodal agency for import, penalty clauses and norms for power dispatch in compliance with the Indian grid, the report said.

"We will also have to take into account the fact that a country which develops its power portfolio on the basis of import from another country would find itself in deep trouble if at a critical juncture a large component of power suddenly becomes unavailable," the sources pointed out.