Energy trading, hydropower investments to top agenda

A two-day Bangladesh-Nepal energy dialogue opens today (Monday) in Kathmandu to discuss ways of boosting such a trade between the two South Asian countries.
The bilateral meeting, among other things, is expected to focus on the planned import of electricity from Nepal and the scopes for Bangladesh to invest in Nepal's hydropower sector.
Power Division secretary Dr. Ahmad Kaikaus will lead Bangladesh side during the joint steering committee meeting between the two countries.
Joint secretary of the same division Sheikh Faezul Amin will lead the Bangladesh side during the Joint Working Group meeting to be held simultaneously.
"The main two topics of the upcoming dialogue would be energy trading and hydropower investment," said a senior official of the Power Division who prefers not to be named.
"In addition, Nepal is also interested to learn from Bangladesh's experience in solar energy," he added.
Earlier in August, the two countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to increase cooperation in the power sector and speed up the process of importing hydroelectricity from Nepal.
At that time, the two countries also agreed to form a Joint Working Group (JWG) co-led by joint secretaries of the ministries concerned of both countries and a Joint Steering Committee (JSC) co-led by the secretaries of both countries.
According to the agreement, both the JWG and JSC would sit together every year to discuss the bilateral energy issues.
Accordingly, Nepal had earlier sent its proposal to the government of Bangladesh, expressing its interest to host the JWG and JSC meeting in the middle of November.
However, after a round of discussions, the two countries agreed to hold the meeting in the first week of December instead.
According to Kathmandu Post, the meeting will discuss the possibility of developing two hydropower projects in Nepal with a total installed capacity of 1,600 megawatts (MW) with Bangladeshi investment.
Bangladesh has a plan to import 9,000 MW of electricity from the neighbouring countries by 2041. The country is already importing more than 1,100 MW of electricity from India.
Last year, Bangladesh signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indian company GMR Energy to import 500 MW of electricity from Nepal. The Indian firm is currently building a 900 MW Upper Karnali HPP in western Nepal.
Being a mountainous country with huge potentials in hydroelectricity, Nepal currently has a mega plan to produce 15,000 MW of hydropower in the next 10 years.
Officials informed Nepal is keen to learn from Bangladesh's experience with solar energy. Bangladesh has installed more than four million solar home systems countrywide in the last two decades, making it a major success story for SHS.
The bilateral dialogue is also taking place a few months after the BIMSTEC Summit where an MoU was signed between seven member states--Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand to establish a Bimstec Grid Interconnection.
In this context, the two countries may also focus on increasing energy cooperation in the light of that recent agreement, officials said.

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