IPPAN urges government to declare national energy crisis
Tue, Nov 3, 2015 11:09 AM on External Media,
Independent power producers have demanded that the government declare ‘national energy crisis’ and focus on hydropower development to address acute shortage of energy.
Issuing a whitepaper on Nepal’s energy situation, Independent Power Producers Association Nepal (IPPAN) said the ‘national energy crisis’ should be continued until the country generates at least 10,000 MW of hydropower. Nepal’s total hydropower generation is below 800 MW. Hydropower projects with combined capacity of 1,000 MW are in different stages of construction.
At a meeting with newly appointed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Energy Top Bahadur Rayamajhi, IPPAN officials urged the government to adopt needful measures for becoming self-sufficient on energy.
Referring to the acute fuel crisis that the country is seeing, IPPAN asked the government to look for alternative energy sources. IPPAN officials also said the country’s dependency on other countries for energy is increasing because of factors like conservative energy forecast and conditional power purchase agreements, no hike in electricity tariff for a long time, and lackluster attitude of government authorities while dealing with independent hydropower developers.
Along with petroleum imports worth more than Rs 100 billion from India every year, Nepal also imports electricity worth around Rs 10 billion from India every year. Ongoing petroleum shortage has thrown businesses and industrial sector into disarray, resulting to loss of Gross Domestic Production (GDP) worth Rs 400 billion which is equal to the amount required for generation of 2500 MW hydropower .
IPPAN officials also apprised the energy minister that development of hydropower can save Rs 70 billion annually that the country spends to import LP gas.
IPPAN has given the government seven-point suggestions to facilitate hydropower development. Among others, it has suggested that the government adopt fast track services in land acquisition and forest clearance for hydropower projects. Similarly, it has suggested preparing separate guidelines related to national energy crisis and endorsing a national energy security policy.
Independent power developers have also suggested that the government introduce single desk services for hydropower developers for better coordination among government agencies. It has asked the government to come up with more realistic energy forecast and initiate work to reduce consumption of fossil fuel as far as possible.
Likewise, IPPAN has also suggested that the government prioritize development of reservoir projects, and open door for private sector to construct transmission lines in Build, Own and Transfer (BOT) model. IPPAN has also asked the government to provide tax discounts on import of electric vehicles and cooking appliances.
Source: Republica
