Kathmandu. The Independent Power Producers’ Association, Nepal (IPPAN) has demanded various relief packages for flood-affected hydropower projects.
In a meeting with Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Kulman Ghising on Wednesday, IPPAN Chair Ganesh Karki said that the government should announce relief package for the reconstruction of flood-damaged hydropower projects. Chairman Karki also said that the relief package should be brought keeping in mind the date for resumption of power generation (RCOD), license period, loan reschedule, long-term financing and customs duty waiver, among other issues.
During the meeting, Energy Minister Ghising pledged to take initiatives to provide relief to the flood-affected projects. He also said that the problems related to forest-related energy projects would be presented in the upcoming cabinet meeting for resolution.
Out of 20 hydropower projects in operation due to the extremely heavy rains that occurred from October 3 to 19, 17 hydropower projects with capacity of 135 MW have completely halted their production while three projects of 156 MW have been partially affected. Similarly, 17 hydropower projects with a capacity of 520 MW under construction have also been damaged.
TAG_OPEN_strong_18 Here are the demands put forth by IPPAN to the Energy Minister
- Provision should be made to import machinery and equipment required for reconstruction and maintenance of flood-affected projects at 1 percent customs duty.
- RCOD period of flood-damaged under-construction projects should be extended by 3 years and license period should be extended by 5 years.
- Provision should be made for loan rescheduling and refinancing of flood-affected projects.
- Arrangements should be made for the issue of stalled IPOs and right shares of flood-affected projects at the earliest.
- Necessary policy decisions should be taken by declaring hydropower projects damaged by natural disasters as crisis-threatened.
- Provision of long-term financing for flood-affected projects.
- FY 2082. 83 to 2084. If electricity is not generated within 85 years, the provision of automatically converting to take-and-pay PPA should be scrapped.
