10. India’s Cross Border Electricity Trade with BIMSTEC Countries

This chapter assesses the present status of India’s Cross Border Electricity Trade (CBET) with partners Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, and Myanmar, and its effects on energy security. A mathematical model, consisting of source, trade, and result functions, was developed based on simple energy balance with and without CBET. In the first scenario, India and its trading partners are independently simulated for energy balance to individually assess energy deficit and storage dynamics. Drought season could cause serious deficits for countries dependent on single power sources, undermining energy security in ways that adding renewables to the mix might address. In the second scenario, interconnected grids could reduce storage and generation capacity and curtailment period for renewables. Trading partners dependent on single power sources might avoid deficits as energy could be imported, showing how CBET measurably affects energy security, helping achieve clean energy targets, minimize curtailment periods, and promote renewable energy penetration.