Soon, Bengal to export 1,000MW power to Nepal, Bhutan

Pradip Chatterjee | MP | 17 April 2017 | Kolkata: The Bengal government will soon export 1,000 Mega Watt (MW) electricity to various neighbouring countries including Nepal and Bhutan. Meanwhile, the capacity of the export of electricity to Bangladesh will also be increased.

State Power minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay said that his department has set a target to export 1,000 MW electricity to neighbouring countries including 

Bangladesh. The minister is hopeful that the target will soon be achieved by his department as the state government has constructed various power generation units while many others are under construction.

"We have a target to export electricity to neighbouring countries like Nepal and Bhutan with the development of infrastructure across the state. In the initial level, we are planning to export around 1,000 Megawatt electricity to our neighbouring countries as per their requirements," Chattopadhyay said.

He further added: "The state government is already supplying 250 Megawatt electricity to Bangladesh and we are trying to increase the supply to other countries as well. For this, the infrastructure development is underway."

According to sources, Bengal has around 9,000 MW in surplus electricity out of which 250 MW is supplied to Bangladesh. The state Power department is trying to double the amount. To make it happen, senior officials of the state Power department have been holding meetings with their counterparts in Bangladesh. Talks are on with the senior officials of other countries in this regard too.

Sources said that the power plants in Bengal have been generating nearly around 7,000 MW of electricity every day on an average and private power plants around 11,000 MW. 

During peak hours, the state needs nearly 9,000 MW a day. Bengal ranks second after Maharashtra in terms of production of electricity without the assistance of the Centre. The Bengal government had entered into an agreement with the Power Trade Corporation (PTC) to sell its surplus power to Bangladesh.

According to the deal, Bengal sells 250 MW of power to Bangladesh every month. It may be mentioned that Bengal is among the few Indian states to have surplus power which is a major achievement as it has been viewed by many. Power is supplied to Bangladesh through an electrical grid connection between the two countries.

The minister also said that the production of power has gone up in the last few years. A great deal of works has been done in the past few years to increase the production of power in the state. 

Now, the Power department has set a target to supply electricity to Nepal and Bhutan. The department is also eyeing at an increase of power in the state in the next few years.