How much does Bhutan earn from hydropower?

The honest answer has three layers, because “earn” means different things at each.

The generator. DGPC — the state’s hydropower operator — earned about Nu 23.4 billion in revenue in 2024, roughly doubling after the 720 MW Mangdechhu plant was consolidated onto its balance sheet, with profit of about Nu 8.6 billion: the largest single contributor to DHI’s record group results.

The state. Energy royalties added about Nu 4.5 billion to government in 2024, and hydropower anchors the roughly 40% of all national domestic revenue that flows from the DHI group — which is why the same money appears in the budget under four names, and why a weak monsoon shows up as a weak budget.

The border. Exports to India ran 7,925 GWh in 2025, at tariffs from Nu 2.12 (Tala’s legacy contract) to Nu 5.10 (Punatsangchhu-II’s new one) per unit. But the earnings question has a currency inside it: the tariffs are set in rupees, for decades, with no exchange-rate clause — so what the rivers earn in hard money has fallen even as the rupee figures rose. That, and the fact that Bhutan now uses more of its own power than it sells, is why “how much does hydropower earn” is becoming a different question than the one the dams were built to answer.