BD seeks ADB support to import hydropower from Nepal, Bhutan, Laos

Bangladesh has sought Asian Development Bank's (ADB) support to import hydropower from Nepal, Bhutan and Laos through India and Myanmar.
State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid sought this support from the visiting Vice President of Asian Development Bank (ADB) Wenchai Zhang at a meeting at the Power Division on Thursday.
To meet the country's growing demand of electricity, Bangladesh plans to tap the hydro potential of Nepal, Bhutan and Laos along with the previous plan to import 4,500 MW of electricity from Indian private sector.
"As hydropower is cheap comparing with the other sources of energy, we plan to import it from neighbouring countries. We need grid-corridor from India and Myanmar to implement the plan," said a senior official of the Power division.
Bangladesh needs to import a huge amount of electricity from abroad to continue its present pace of GDP growth. As per power sector masterplan, it needs to produce 30,000-60,000 MW of electricity between 2030 and 2041. However, cross-border power import is one of major component here.
Bangladesh needs this support from ADB as soon as possible as the Indian government launched the'Guidelines on Cross-Border Trade of Electricity' on December 5, 2016 in a bid to regulate its electricity trade with its neighbours- Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar.
The Guidelines on Cross-Border Trade of Electricity contradicts with the Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) common power grid line or SAARC gridline. However, the new guideline for cross-border trade of electricity might hamper the implementation of any tripartite or multilateral deals in future, industry's insider said.
"The new Indian guidelines said the companies fully owned by the government of countries concerned including Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Myanmar and those having 51 percent equity investment of Indian public and private companies can export power to the Indian market after obtaining one-time approval from the designated authority in India. It will increase the tariff of cheap hydropower. So, we need corridor from India to import hydropower and only ADB could help us implement the idea," an official said preferring anonymity.
He said there is nothing in Myanmar like India but if we want to tap Laos's hydropower, we need Myanmar's corridor and ADB can play a very significant role to implement it.
"Although we did not get any firm response from the ADB's Vice-President but the Power Division might send a request letter to ADB in this regard," the official said.
Earlier, ABD announced that it would provide assistance in the sub-regional power grid system under the Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal (BBIN) inter-regional economic cooperation.
Bangladesh has been negotiating with Nepal and Bhutan for setting up mega hydroelectric power projects with the consent of India for importing electricity through the Indian corridor.