Nepal has started selling electricity to India through its power exchange market starting from Wednesday midnight.

Along with the recent rainfalls, power projects in the country have started to produce more energy which prompted the Nepal Electricity Authority to sell surplus energy to the Indian market.

“We started selling 37.7MW of electricity to Indian buyers starting from 12.15am on Thursday,” said Suresh Bhattarai, spokesperson at the Nepal Electricity Authority. “We have already sent a proposal to India Energy Exchange (IEX) for selling equivalent power on Friday also.”

According to him, electricity produced from the 24MW Trishuli and 15MW Devighat power plants was sold on Thursday.

“The average price of the electricity has been maintained at INR 6 per unit,” said Lokendra Shahi, an official at the NEA. “The NEA will earn around Rs10 million by selling electricity on Thursday and prices may vary on different days.”

The country is selling electricity to India through its exchange market for the second year in a row.

The state-owned power utility body had sold electricity from the same two projects for nearly one and a half months starting early November last year.

In early May, NEA had invited bids from Indian companies to sell its 200MW surplus energy in the upcoming rainy season under a long-term power purchase agreement.

The state-owned power utility body said in a statement that it would sell surplus energy from July 1 to November 29. All open access consumers, regulated utilities, power distribution companies and traders having valid trading licences issued by the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission of India can participate in the bidding process, according to the notice.

Indian authorities have allowed NEA to sell a total 364MW in the open market of India so far.

“We will gradually increase the quantity of power to be sold in India,” said Bhattarai.