Kathmandu. Kathmandu was experiencing light rain on Thursday afternoon. However, the meeting hall of the Everest Hotel was hot. Independent Power Producers’ Association of Nepal (IPPAN) was holding a public event under black banner for the first time. No government representatives, no MPs and ministers participated. One after the other, only energy entrepreneurs and media persons participated.
Without fulfilling any formalities like the national anthem and inauguration, there is a slogan at the outset – “Government ‘Take and Pay’ PPA is wrong, take back, take back, take back” then promoters are allowed to put forth their views. They stressed the need for the power producers to go for a phased agitation against the announcement of power purchase agreement (PPA) as per the ‘take and pay’ provision of river flow-based (RoR) hydropower project in the budget for the next fiscal year.
Their anger doesn’t stop there. At a gathering of licensee promoters of the hydropower project based on river flow, they opined that if the government does not correct this point, then the movement should go ahead with the ‘blackout’ in a phased manner.
What topics raised?
Not only take-and-pay, but not to buy electricity for years by signing the contingency PPA after the construction of the project, to issue shares only after lighting the lights on the projects that require capital during the construction, not to bring the IPO by bringing 90 percent net worth in the beginning of the project with a loan of billions of rupees, the Nepal Electricity Authority will benefit from the late lighting, but do not add the commercial power generation date (RCOD) to penalty the promoter. The promoters who participated in the meeting said that due to the delay in the construction of the project due to the lack of study consent by the forest department, the work of not extending the license of the project is going to complete the energy sector in a planned way.
The promoters are of the view that the minister/prime minister should meet and submit a memorandum, if not, then the investors who have invested founders/ ordinary shares in hydropower will sit on a sit-in and even then if the government does not address the demand, then the power generation should not be stopped and ‘blackout’ should not be held.
Addressing the gathering, IPPAN President Ganesh Karki said that there is no alternative to addressing these issues than a decisive movement. A small sentence in one of the points of the budget said that the future of the 17,000 MW capacity project is in jeopardy and more than Rs 66 billion investment in it is at risk.
“The finance minister, energy minister, energy secretary and executive chief of Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) have said that they do not know how the issue of take-and-pay came up in the budget. Although there is no proposal from the official body, it has been mentioned in the budget that the energy sector will be completed in the oral proposal on the basis of power and access. If this proposal is not made, the energy field ends. If the sector is exhausted, there are also energy producers. The producers should either be ready to hang up or be ready to agitate. ” he said.
Mohan Kumar Dangi, senior vice-president of IPPAN, said that the game
of finishing the energy sector has started in the same way as the carpet industry flourished earlier.
‘। It didn’t come overnight. There are planned moves to lock 33 percent share of the promoter, not allow the project to bring ipo without lighting the lamp, not allow the construction of 20,000 MW projects by a supreme court verdict, and now another 17,000 MW project called Take and Pay. There is no other alternative to this than the strongest movement. ” he said.
IPPAN General Secretary Balram Khatiwada said that a struggle committee would be formed under the leadership of IPPAN Senior Vice-President Mohan Kumar Dangi.
IPPAN Deputy General Secretary Prakash Dulal said that the act is being brought by keeping something more dangerous than the take-and-pay provision in the Electricity Act, adding that entrepreneurs in this sector will have to run away from the next day.
The promoters who spoke at the gathering also said that the Water Resources Act is more dangerous than the Electricity Act. They said that the hydropower project could not be constructed as it was not possible as it was not possible to take the consent of 100 percent people of the concerned village regarding the use of water.
Ippan’s team reached the Finance Minister on Tuesday with the Energy Minister to correct the take-and-pay provision. When the Finance Minister said that he should be advised to correct the point, the Energy Minister had said that if this arrangement was not made, he would also join the movement with the private sector.
When the Ministry of Energy came out with a road map to produce 28,500 MW of electricity, the Finance Ministry said the budget did not touch this point anywhere. On the contrary, it has put the investment made in this sector at risk by including PPA in take-and-pay projects based on river flow.
If this arrangement continues, only three dozen semi-reservoir hydropower projects of about 2,000 MW capacity, which are currently under study, will have PPA.
