India approves emergency electricity exports after Nepal floods wreck hydropower capacity

Emergency power through December

India has approved expedited electricity exports to Nepal after catastrophic Himalayan floods damaged the hydropower plants on which the country relied for nearly all of its electricity. The arrangement permits deliveries of up to 654 megawatts for 18 hours each day through December 31. India’s Power Ministry plans to review the volume again in December before determining how much can be supplied from January.

The decision addresses a rapid reversal in Nepal’s energy position. Before the August 26 disaster, Nepal had been exporting surplus hydropower to India. Damage to at least 12 projects has instead forced it to import electricity for basic services and economic activity. The emergency exports therefore provide both immediate grid support and a bridge while damaged generation, transmission and access infrastructure are assessed.

Floods severed essential systems

The United Nations has documented extensive damage to power grids, roads, schools and water systems across Rasuwa, Nuwakot and Dhading. Its September 4 emergency appeal sought $49.6 million to assist more than 84,000 people. That response includes portable solar equipment for communities cut off from the grid, underscoring that cross-border bulk electricity will not by itself restore power to every isolated settlement.

The disaster was triggered by a collapse involving ice, rock and mud near the Nepal-China border. Thousands of people remain missing, including workers at hydropower sites, and whole communities face prolonged displacement. The power loss compounds the humanitarian emergency because electricity is required for communications, water treatment, clinics, cold storage and the reopening of transport and commercial networks.

A regional resilience test

India and Nepal already operate an increasingly connected electricity market, but this episode changes the direction and urgency of the flows. It shows the value of cross-border transmission when a country dominated by one generation source suffers a simultaneous infrastructure shock. It also exposes the risk of relying on mountain hydropower without sufficient storage, distributed generation and resilient connections to neighbouring grids.

Attention now turns to how quickly Nepal can reconnect damaged projects and whether India extends the arrangement into 2027. The December review will offer an early measure of recovery. Longer term, reconstruction decisions will determine whether plants, transmission corridors and emergency systems are redesigned for glacial hazards and extreme flooding rather than restored to their previous level of vulnerability.