India to send Nepal 654 MW for 18 hours a day after the August floods

India's Power Ministry on 14 September confirmed approval to export up to 654 megawatts to the Nepal Electricity Authority for 18 hours a day from 13 September through 31 December. Power will flow from midnight to 6 p.m. Up to 600 MW can move on the Muzaffarpur-Dhalkebar 400 kV double-circuit line. Another 54 MW can move on the Tanakpur-Mahendranagar 132 kV single-circuit line. The volume from January 2027 will be reviewed in December.

The ministry said the August floods damaged Nepal's hydropower plant fleet, cut domestic generation and created an extra need for imports. "The approval will help Nepal meet its power requirements during this difficult period and further strengthen the close and longstanding energy cooperation between India and Nepal," the statement said.

The floods began after an ice-rock avalanche near the Nepal-Tibet border on 26 August. Nepal's national disaster authority put the death toll at 1,385 on 11 September, with 5,130 people still listed as missing. More than 12 hydropower plants were swept away or wrecked. About 900 power-station workers were among the missing. Independent tallies put damaged capacity near 550 MW, or about a tenth of Nepal's generation. Exports from Nepal to India had already dropped by about 400 MW.

A reversed seasonal trade

In a normal monsoon year Nepal sells surplus wet-season hydropower into the Indian grid and buys power back in the dry months. This year the surplus vanished in a few days. Kathmandu stopped exports and asked Delhi to process import requests from September. The 654 MW approval is that request in writing.

The two lines named in the order are the existing cross-border links that already carry the seasonal trade. Muzaffarpur-Dhalkebar is the high-capacity route. Tanakpur-Mahendranagar is the older, smaller one. Eighteen hours a day, rather than around the clock, leaves the Indian evening peak on the Indian side of the meter. That is a practical limit, not a political slight. Indian states in the north also run tight evening peaks.

Chilime and other project sites in Rasuwa remain rescue zones as much as generation assets. Almanaque has already reported the switch to hand-dug headings at Chilime, where six workers have been missing since 26 August. The 654 MW is the grid answer to the same disaster: replace lost turbines with imports while bodies are still being sought in the silt.

What December's review will measure

If Nepal can restart even half of the damaged plants before winter, the January volume can shrink. If silted intakes and broken penstocks stay offline, the review will have to consider a longer import. Hydropower is almost all of Nepal's electricity. There is no large thermal fleet to lean on. That is why a tenth of capacity lost in one flood becomes a bilateral power order rather than a domestic fuel-switch.

For India the export is small against national demand and large against the politics of a neighbour in shock. The ministry presented it as continuity of energy cooperation. The numbers are more specific than that language. 654 MW, 18 hours, two named lines, a 31 December sunset and a December review. Those are the terms Kathmandu can plan winter load-shedding against.