The figure the ministry named
India's Ministry of Power said on Monday that up to 654 MW of electricity would be transmitted to Nepal for 18 hours a day until 31 December. The ministry said the approval would help Nepal meet its power requirements during this difficult period and further strengthen the close and longstanding energy cooperation between India and Nepal.[1]
The same statement added that in December the ministry would also review the amount of power to be exported from January. The megawatt figure and the 31 December cut-off are written in the ministry statement.[1]
From surplus exports to imports
The flooding began on 26 August with a glacial mountain collapse on the China-Nepal border and killed more than 1,400 people in Nepal and Tibet. At least 12 hydropower projects in Nepal were hit. At least 900 power-station workers are among the more than 5,500 people still missing in the country.[1]
Before the floods, almost 100 percent of Nepal's energy needs were met by hydropower, and Nepal had for years exported surplus power to India. Since then it has been forced to import. Read together, the 654 MW permit and the December review of the January quantity put the terms of that post-flood import on the Ministry of Power's administrative calendar. The approval may also be a bounded permit filling a hole the flood opened, with no lasting hold on Nepal's export policy.[1]
The megawatts December publishes
The January quantity the ministry said it would review in December is the next published number that shows whether the 654 megawatts is held. The review date the ministry named is December 2026.[1]