Senior officials of Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) countries have finalized a draft deal to set up grid connectivity, allowing its seven member countries to share their surplus electricity with each other. The draft deal came out of the 5th Meeting of the BIMSTEC Task Force on Trans-Power Exchange held on 16 March 2015 in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Negotiations for the draft memorandum of understanding (MoU) took years to finalize, with BIMSTEC aiming to create reliable and secure interconnections using an economical electricity supply. Guided by the inter-regional organization's principles of mutual cooperation and sustainable development, the MoU provides a broad framework for grid interconnections, and promotes balanced power transmission across the region.

It is estimated that the seven BIMSTEC countries have a combined hydropower potential of about 290,000 MW—150,000 MW from India; 42,000 MW from Nepal; 40,000 MW from Myanmar; 30,000 MW from Bhutan; 25,500 MW from Thailand; 2,000 MW from Sri Lanka; and 500 MW from Bangladesh.

Mr. Anwar Hossain, Power Division Joint Secretary, described the deal as another step toward ensuring the region's energy security. The draft will now be included in the agenda of the forthcoming BIMSTEC Energy Secretaries’ Conference, and may be signed at the Third Energy Ministers' Meeting in Kathmandu sometime this year.

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) signed a similar agreement, the SAARC Framework Agreement for Energy Cooperation, at the 18th SAARC Summit in November 2014, setting up a South Asian regional grid for cross-border power trade. The BIMSTEC framework will complement the SAARC deal in boosting energy security in the region.

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