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The price of gold has dropped by Rs 100 per tola in the domestic market on Monday. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, the yellow bullion is being traded at Rs 112, 400 per tola today. The yellow metal was traded at Rs 112, 500 per tola on Sunday. Meanwhile, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 111, 850 per tola. It was traded at Rs 111, 950 per tola. Similarly, the silver is being traded at Rs 1,455 per tola today.

The gold is being traded at Rs 112, 500 per tola in the domestic market on Sunday. According to the Federation of Nepal Gold and Silver Dealers’ Association, tejabi gold is being traded at Rs 111, 950 per tola. Similarly, the silver is being traded at Rs 1,455 per tola today.

The government has decided to introduce a new law to allow the private sector to engage in power trading. The Cabinet meeting on Wednesday, the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources, and Irrigation was granted permission to present a bill on power trading to the parliament. Once the bill receives endorsement from the parliament and is enacted, it will open the doors for private-sector companies to engage in power trading. This signifies a significant shift in the power sector, allowing private entities to actively participate in buying and selling electricity. The proposed law aims to create a framework that enables private sector involvement and facilitates competition in the power trading market. According to a senior official from the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources, and Irrigation, the proposed bill encompasses provisions to permit the private sector to engage in power trading both domestically and internationally. Currently, in Nepal, the private sector is solely granted the right to generate electricity, while power trading remains under the monopoly of the government-owned Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA). The Nepali private sector, including independent power producers, has been advocating for their involvement in power trading. This demand stems from the fact that the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) currently holds a monopoly on power purchase agreements (PPAs), leaving no other entity in the country authorized to sign such agreements. The Sher Bahadur Deuba-led government did make efforts to facilitate the entry of the private sector into power trading by introducing an ordinance last year. The Deuba government withdrew the long-pending Electricity Bill at the National Assembly and opted for an ordinance instead. In October 2022, the Deuba government passed an ordinance to ratify the Electricity Act 1991 to give licenses to the private sector for power trade. However, the then President Bidya Devi Bhandari did not endorse the ordinance sent by the government for authentication. The bill had provisions for the developers to sell their electricity in the market after taking approval from the ministry and the private sector can also obtain a license to trade power in the international market. The private power developers have welcomed the government's move to table the bill in the parliament. "This is a welcome move. We've been demanding this for long," said Krishna Prasad Acharya, president of the Independent Power Producers' Association Nepal (IPPAN). The Nepali power producers have been gearing up for power trading licenses by establishing power trade companies. According to the Department of Electricity Development (DoED), Nepal Power Exchange Ltd (NEPEX) and Power Trading and Energy Exchange Ltd (PTEEL) have applied for power trading licenses. Similarly, Nepal Infrastructure Bank has applied to the Ministry of Energy, on behalf of the Power Trading Company (PTC) Ltd, and the Himalayan Trading Company is also preparing to register an application for the license. While the private sector in Nepal is still awaiting the trading license to sell electricity in both domestic and foreign markets, some private entities have already signed the memorandum of understanding (MoUs) with Indian companies for cross-border power trading. The Nepal Power Exchange Limited (NPEL), subsidiary of IPPAN has already signed an agreement with Manikaran Power Limited, India to carry out cross-border electricity trade. As per the MoU, the Indian company will buy 500MW of electricity from the Nepal Power Exchange Limited besides investing in the Nepali company itself. During the Power Summit 2023, Nepali and Indian companies signed initial deals for selling 2,200 MW of electricity to India. Manikaran Power Limited signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to purchase around 200MW of electricity directly from the hydropower projects. Vedanta Resources, a sister company of Vedanta Limited, also initiated the process to buy 2,000MW of hydropower from Nepal in the next five years.    

The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) is all set to evaluate the technical bids it received for the development of solar plants and supply of electricity to the state-owned power utility body. The NEA said in a notice that it would open the technical bids on Friday (June 9). On November 28, last year the state-owned power utility body had invited bids from the solar manufacturers to build up to 100MW of solar plants in different locations by setting the deadline for February 26, 2023. In an addendum notice, the NEA extended the deadline till March 13, 2023. However, the plan suffered a setback after the High Court, Patan, on May 5, 2023, issued an interim order barring the NEA from opening the bids. “After the high court scrapped the complaints registered at the High nearly three weeks ago, the NEA decided to open the technical bid,” said a senior official of NEA.  “There are about a dozen companies that have participated in the bid.” As per the bid notice,  the NEA has set an upper limit on the price it is ready to pay for solar power. It has fixed the maximum price of Rs 5.94 per unit for the bidders which many solar manufacturers say is unfeasible. In March last year, the NEA decided to cap the maximum rate to be offered to solar power generators at Rs 5.94 per unit.  Earlier, the NEA had been signing power purchase agreements with solar power developers at a fixed rate of Rs 7.30 per unit. Solar Electric Manufacturers Association Nepal registered a writ petition at the High Court claiming that the price cap would affect companies that have already made investments based on the prior price rate. While issuing the interim order, the High Court had taken into account the claims made by the association that the maximum price of Rs 5.94 per unit offered by the NEA would not be profitable for investors who had already made huge investments with the expectation of getting Rs 7.30 per unit, the rate fixed by the government earlier. In January last year, the NEA decided to procure solar energy only through competitive bidding,  putting an end to the practice of buying power at a fixed rate in the previous three years. The NEA plans to buy a maximum of 100 MW of power from such solar plants which have been proposed to be developed by the private sector at 16 locations across the country. According to the NEA, up to 230MW of solar power plants could be developed in those locations. As per the tender notice,  the bidders have to propose to develop plants with a capacity above 1 MW. The bidder can choose any solar photovoltaic power generation technology. The selected bidder will also be responsible for evacuating power from the plant to the nearby NEA substation, according to the tender notice. Nepal has a long way to go to realize its potential in solar energy with the country so far producing just 44.52MW from solar power, according to the energy ministry. Nepal has the potential to generate around 2,100MW of solar electricity, according to the Nepal Energy Sector Synopsis Report-2022. Nepal plans to have a certain portion of energy to be generated from solar. Nepal also aims to generate a total of 15,000 MW of electricity by 2030.  Of total energy generation. And it wants the contribution of mini and micro-hydropower, solar, wind, and bio-energy projects at 5-10 percent as an energy mix strategy.