KATHMANDU, AUGUST 9
Lawmakers of the Infrastructure Development Committee amid a meeting held to discuss the problems faced by the independent power producers and their solutions have urged respective political parties to express their commitment for the rapid development of the energy sector.
Ganesh Karki, chairman of the Independent Power Producers' Association, Nepal (IPPAN), who was invited to the meeting, opined that although Nepal is earning foreign currency by selling electricity, the country's industries are deprived of adequate electricity as the electricity produced is being wasted.
He shared that while everyone is aware of the importance of the hydropower sector, there has been no initiative to resolve the existing issues faced by the sector. Mentioning the slow pace of construction of transmission lines alongside increasing power generation in the country, Karki shared that the lack of transmission lines will not allow the produced power to be consumed nor be exported, which is likely to create further issues for the economy.
Presenting 'Problems of Independent Power Producers and their Solutions' at the meeting, Prakash Chandra Dulal, joint general secretary of IPPAN, shared that while the country's potential capacity stands at around 83,000 megawatts (MW), the current production capacity remains at just 3,000 megawatts. According to Dulal, hydropower plants with a capacity of 4,452 MW are under construction while infrastructure with 9,632.8 MW are ready for construction.
He shared that around 880 projects with a capacity of 71,167 MW have been identified of which some are already in the construction process. Of them, the private sector is involved in 637 projects with a capacity of 31,391 MW, the government in 223 projects with a capacity of 15,234 MW, the Investment Board in seven projects with a capacity of 4,732 MW, and three large multi-purpose watersheds.
Dulal urged the committee to announce the energy development decade and suspend some of the laws related to forest, environment, and land and to introduce power acts and regulations to increase power capacity to 30,000 MW over the next decade, impose VAT on sales of electricity, increase investments of banks in hydropower to 20 per cent within the time frame, to create a political environment that is friendly to energy development, and to allow the private sector to trade electricity.
After the presentation, lawmakers present in the meeting opined that all political parties should pledge to cooperate in the development of the energy sector.
A version of this article appears in the print on August 10, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
