May 9: The government is preparing to adopt a policy related to wheeling charge for renting out transmission lines. The Electricity Regulatory Commission informed that it has already initiated the process in this regard.

The commission says that the transmission lines can be rented after the government issues a directive to this effect. Chairman of the commission Dilli Bahadur Singh informed that they are currently preparing a directive to rent out the transmission lines.

“We have already prepared a draft of the directive. We will soon finalize it,” said Singh.

The commission is preparing such directive to allow the private sector to trade electricity. As the private sector has not set up its own transmission lines, it has to rely on government-owned transmission lines. The private sector had been demanding the government to rent its transmission lines.

The state-owned Nepal Electricity Authority is currently involved in setting up transmission lines. The government has also established the National Grid Company especially for this purpose.

Once the directive gets ready, it will open the door for the private sector to use the state-owned transmission lines for electricity trade.

The directive will focus on the rental charge for the use of transmission lines by the private sector, informed Singh. However, the rental charge of the transmission lines has not yet been fixed. Singh informed that they are conducing necessary study and discussions in this regard.

“It is not that easy to determine the charge,” said Singh, adding, “The charge has to be determined considering the length of the transmission line as well as the amount of electricity and the time used for the transmission of electricity.”

Once the directive is ready, other institutions can set up separate transmission lines and use them for rental purpose, said Singh.