Energy
Sector: Energy Total Cost: $191 million Status: Ongoing
A recipient of the US Treasury Department's Development Impact Honors in 2013, this project constructed Dagachhu hydropower plant—the first certified cross-border clean development mechanism in the world—and increased access to green power for export to India. Remote schools, health clinics, and community facilities also benefit from access to green electricity.
Sector: Energy Total Cost: $94 million Status: Ongoing
This project will increase electricity access nationwide by strengthening the grid electrification rate and generation capacity for domestic use. It is creating energy-efficient power supplies by rehabilitating Marshyangdi and Gandak hydropower stations, constructing new 132 kV lines, and distribution and switching stations.
Sector: Energy Total Cost: $199 million Status: Ongoing
South Asia's first high-voltage direct current interconnection is improving control over power flows and stability of India and Bangladesh's national power grids. The project built a 400-kilovolt double circuit transmission line between the electrical substations at Baharampur, India and Bheramara, Bangladesh.
Sector: Energy Total Cost: $128 million Status: Ongoing
This project aims to improve the reliability of Nepal’s energy supply and strengthen the transmission infrastructure needed to promote Nepal's capacity for cross-border energy trade. It supports investment in electricity transmission capacity expansion; strengthening of distribution systems; and rehabilitation of selected small hydropower plants.
Sector: Energy Total Cost: $26 million Status: Ongoing
The Project Preparatory Facility will contribute to Nepal's improved energy security and bring it closer to being an energy exporter. It will support activities to prepare hydropower projects and a second 400-kilovolt transmission line project across Nepal's border with India, and provide public-private partnership development services focusing on energy export.
SASEC Energy Sector Strategy
- Improve cross-border electricity transmission connectivity
- Increase power trade
- Increase cooperation in energy efficiency and clean power development
- Capacity development
Key Facts
- SASEC countries are rich in renewable resources although energy resources are unevenly distributed: India has huge coal reserves, Bangladesh has natural gas, while Bhutan and Nepal have hydropower.
- Domestic and sub-regional energy resources in South Asia are not being fully exploited—shortages are causing an increasing dependence on fuel imports from outside the region.
Key Challenges
- Strengthening of national power grids to ensure efficient and reliable energy supplies.
- Development of cross-border energy interconnection infrastructure to create and serve an effective regional power market.
- Improvement of energy trade infrastructure, including harmonized energy policies and legal regulatory frameworks
Unlocking the Future:
Regional Energy Cooperation
- Helps optimize resources and improves intraregional trade by reducing costs and import dependence.
- Improves efficiency in the power sector and strengthens energy security during external shocks or volatile petroleum prices
- Enhances regional power exchange structures.
- Increases access and development of renewable energy resources, helping protect an increasingly fragile environment