Kathmandu. The Electricity Regulatory Commission (ERC) has issued the ‘Open Access Directive-2082’.

According to the Commission, the directive has been issued in accordance with Section 14 of the Electricity Regulatory Commission Act, 2074 BS based on the policy of General Network Access Framework.

With this, the compulsion to depend on power purchase agreement only with Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has ended. With this directive, the promoters will now be able to find the market on their own and sell electricity directly to industrialists, businessmen and foreign buyers.

According to the directive, hydropower projects with 5 MW or more connected voltage at 33 KV or above, captive projects with minimum open access capacity and industrial and commercial consumers with 5 MW or more capacity will be eligible to receive the service. However, the directive states that the minimum capacity of the electricity should be 10 MW for the use of open access for inter-country trade.

The guidelines are divided into three categories: long-term, mid-term and short-term. The long-term open access will be for a stipulated period (more than 5 years), medium-term open access will be more than 1 year to 5 years and short-term open access will be minimum 24 hours to 1 year.

The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has designated the Electricity System Operation Department as the nodal agency. The user will have to pay as per his/her type of broadcasting fee, wheeling fee, deviation settlement fee, cross-subsidy fee, additional surcharge, standby fee, reactive energy fee, scheduling fee and operation fee.

The government has opened the opportunity for electricity producers, big consumers and traders to buy and sell electricity using the Nepal Electricity Authority’s transmission line in a non-discriminatory manner.