Beginning 13 September, India is supplying up to 654 MW of electricity to Nepal for 18 hours a day until 31 December, after flash floods triggered by a glacial collapse on the China–Nepal border devastated hydropower infrastructure and killed more than 1,400 people across the region.
India has approved an expedited electricity-export arrangement with Nepal to help the Himalayan country manage a severe power shortfall caused by catastrophic flooding, India’s Ministry of Power confirmed this week. Up to 654 megawatts will be transmitted to Nepal for 18 hours daily — between midnight and 6pm — until 31 December 2026, with the export volume to be reviewed in December to set quotas for 2027. The arrangement, which began on 13 September, allows Nepal’s state-owned Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) to procure power directly from the Indian market.
The proximate cause is a disaster of considerable scale. Flash floods in the Trishuli and Lhende Khola river basins, triggered on 26 August by a glacial mountain collapse on the China–Nepal border, killed more than 1,400 people across Nepal and Tibet and caused an estimated ₹134.69 billion (roughly $1 billion) in damage to Nepal’s energy sector alone, according to a Rapid Damage and Needs Assessment report cited by Nepali authorities. The floods knocked out roughly 550 MW of Nepal’s power-generation capacity from a system that had been operating at around 4,200 MW before the disaster, while also destroying access roads, transmission lines and other supporting infrastructure that has since complicated restoration efforts. Several major hydropower projects — including Upper Trishuli 1, Rasuwagadhi, Rasuwa-Bhotekoshi, Langtang Khola, Chilime and Maillung Khola — were partially damaged, and restoring Nepal’s energy and power-grid systems is estimated to require roughly ₹390.62 billion.
The mechanics of the export
The approved supply splits across two cross-border transmission corridors: up to 600 MW through the 400kV Muzaffarpur–Dhalkebar double-circuit line, and a further 54 MW through the 132kV Tanakpur–Mahendranagar single-circuit connection. India’s power ministry has stated that the export — and the associated reduction in the “reverse” power flow Nepal would otherwise be sending back to India during its wet-season surplus — is expected to have minimal, fully manageable impact on India’s own domestic grid, according to a senior power ministry official cited by Business Standard.
An unusual reversal of the normal seasonal pattern
The arrangement is notable partly because it inverts Nepal’s typical position in the India–Nepal power relationship. Nepal’s electricity system is heavily dependent on run-of-river hydropower and normally produces a substantial surplus during the wet season, exporting significant quantities to India — and, as of earlier in 2026, beginning to supply Bangladesh through India’s transmission network as well, with exports having reached close to 1,000 MW at points this year. The flood damage has forced Nepal to reduce or suspend several of these export flows even as it now needs emergency imports to cover its own domestic shortfall, a reversal that illustrates how quickly climate-driven infrastructure damage can disrupt an energy-trade relationship that has taken years to build.
Why it matters
Beyond its immediate humanitarian and logistical significance for flood-affected Nepal, the episode is a live illustration of the vulnerability that hydropower-dependent grids face from exactly the kind of glacial-lake and flash-flood events that are becoming more frequent as Himalayan glaciers retreat under climate change — a risk that applies, in varying degrees, to hydropower infrastructure across the wider Himalayan region, India’s own northern hydropower assets included. The cross-border transmission response also demonstrates the practical value of the India–Nepal grid interconnection built up over the past decade: without the Muzaffarpur–Dhalkebar and Tanakpur–Mahendranagar links already in place and operational, an emergency supply of this scale and speed would not have been possible. For Nepal, the more difficult questions — the roughly ₹390 billion rebuilding cost, the fate of hundreds of hydropower workers still unaccounted for at affected project sites, and the pace at which damaged generation capacity can be restored before December’s review of 2027 export quotas — remain considerably harder to resolve than the electricity-supply gap itself.-
– Arijit Kar
Key facts
- India supplying up to 654 MW to Nepal for 18 hours/day, 13 September–31 December 2026
- Flood trigger: 26 August 2026 glacial collapse on China-Nepal border; 550 MW of Nepal’s ~4,200 MW capacity lost; 1,400+ dead across Nepal and Tibet
- Supply routed via 400kV Muzaffarpur–Dhalkebar (up to 600 MW) and 132kV Tanakpur–Mahendranagar (54 MW) transmission lines
- Estimated energy-sector damage: ₹134.69 billion; estimated rebuilding cost: ₹390.62 billion
- Export volumes to be reviewed in December 2026 to set 2027 quotas; India says impact on its own domestic supply is minimal
