The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Bhutan’s energy export dropped by Nu 1bn while the import value increased by nearly Nu 100mn, as per the Department of Hydropower and Power Systems, Ministry of Economic Affairs.
One of the four hydro-projects, Chukha hydro-project with a generation capacity of 336MW, mostly exported power to West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, and Sikkim.
The other hydro-projects are the Tala hydro-project with a generative capacity of 1020 MW, Basochhu with 24 MW and Kurichhu generates 60 MW of electricity.
In 2014, 72 percent of the total power generation accounting to 7147.222 million units (MU) was exported and balance was used for meeting the domestic load.
The gross revenue earned from the export is estimated at Nu10.63 bn. In 2013, 5557 MU of energy was exported worth about Nu11bn. 159. 2 MU of energy was imported worth Nu 319mn in 2014. While, in 2013 the energy import was recorded at 108 MU worth around Nu 222mn.
Tala hydro-project saw the highest generation at 4675 MU with gross export of 3319.8 MU, export value worth Nu 6bn at tariff rate of Nu 1.98 per unit.
Chukha’s total generation was at 1797.8 MU, with a gross export of 1642 MU and export worth of Nu 3.7bn at Nu 2.25 per unit.
Kurichu saw total generation of 368 MU, of which 184.7 MU was exported worth of Nu 0.37mn at tariff rate of Nu 1.98 per unit followed by the Bashochu hydro-project with total generation of 306 MU.
Meanwhile, Kurichu saw the highest increase in import value at135.3 MU worth Nu 267.8mn, Tala at 18MU worth Nu 36mn and Chukha at 1.1MU worth Nu 2.5mn.
It is also reflected that the electricity imported from the West Bengal State Electricity Board (WBSEB) and Assam State Electricity Board (ASEB) accounted to about Nu 12mn, where the cost of import by Bhutan Power Corporation from WBSEB and ASEB includes export tariff at Nu 2.25 per unit and additional wheeling charge of Nu 0.20 per unit.
