Private power producers to host Power Summit

The private sector is planning a power summit to promote hydropower development in the country.

Independent Power Producers’ Association-Nepal (IPPAN) is going to host Power Summit 2013 on August 26-27 to catalyse the power development in the country and searching the prospect of exploring market like India,” IPPAN president Subarna Das Shrestha, here today.

“The outcome of the two-day summit will help build a future plan with a clear picture and plan of action with designated roles and responsibilities,” he said, adding that the summit will also cover all the key aspects – like prerequisite for the complete overhaul of energy sector – including political commitment, legal and regulatory framework, realistic demand forecast, pricing, financing infrastructure, transmission lines and managing local expectations.

With a theme ‘Hastening the Pace of Hydropower Development’, the the two-day power summit will also review the country’s achievement in harnessing hydropower potential since 2006, weaknesses and future steps in boosting hydropower development in the country.
The summit will see workshops on four thematic issues — projects with local investments and for domestic consumption, projects for domestic market with foreign direct investment (FDI), export oriented projects with foreign direct investment and power market – during the two days.

The event will be jointly hosted by PTC India Ltd – the only nodal agency that Nepal is required to deal with power trade with India – and Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA). The organisers are expecting the participation of Brazil, China, Czech Republic, France, India, Korea, Norway, and USA and discuss on hydropower development in the country.

“The summit is dedicated to creating an environment for the successful completion of all the hydel projects undertaken,” Shrestha said, adding that there is a need to dedicate our efforts to increasing current energy consumption from a mere 85 KWh per capita to 500 KWh in the next five years.

Earlier, IPPAN had in associations with various Indian partrers had organised power summits in 2006, 2007 and 2008.

The country with a potential of generating 83,000 MW is hardly able to generate 700 MW but the demand has increased to some 1,200 MW at present.

As the scheduled load shedding hours seem increasing, the government and PTC are in talks to get some 180 MW power from India from different points of Bihar.

The industrial sector is feeling the heat of the power scarcity that has increased their cost of production making their products less competitive in the market.