KATHMANDU: Uttam Bhlon, senior vice-president of the Independent Power Producers’ Association, Nepal IPPAN, has said that the wheeling charge for allowing the use of the National Electricity Transmission and Distribution System (electricity grid) made public by the Electricity Regulatory Commission is expensive.

Speaking at a programme organised by the Commission on Thursday in the presence of Energy Minister Biraj Bhakta Shrestha to unveil the criteria for allowing the private sector to use the national electricity grid, Minister Khatiwada said that the fee has become expensive.

According to the commission, for the fiscal year 2083/84, the electricity transmission charge for the transmission system under the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has been fixed at Rs 4.13 lakh per megawatt per month for mid-term and long-term open access and 57 paisa per kilowatt hour for short term open access.

Vlon said that the fee is expensive. He believes that this fee should be reviewed. Vlon claims that this fee will not make Nepali electricity competitive in the international market.

He said that since the internal transmission charge for clean energy is free in India, it is not possible to compete in the international market as Nepali electricity is expensive by around Rs 1.40 per unit.

In the program, Minister Shrestha said that the private sector has been demanding this issue for a long time. He compared the issue of high fees to food.

“As our IPPAN friend said, the tension of the food until the food is not eaten, like the thousand tension after the meal. There is no tension until there is a wheeling price, but today after the wheeling price, now the price has become a tension,” said Minister Shrestha. He believes that this is a practical matter.