KATHMANDU, Oct 28: Independent Power Producers' Association, Nepal (IPPAN) is organizing Power Summit 2016 on December 15-16 with the objective of expediting power generation targeting generation of 10,000 MW in next 10 years.
The conference focused solely on hydropower generation is being held after a gap of three years. The last gathering of power developers was last held in 2013.
IPPAN President Khadga Bahadur Bisht told media persons that the summit will focus on translating the government's plan of generating 10,000 MW in a decade into action. Other agendas include inviting foreign investors to put their money in hydropower sector and ask the government to officially start a countdown for the 10-year energy generation plan.
Issues of energy security, analysis on energy demand and supply, and beginning the execution of Budhigandaki Hydropower Project are some of the key agendas of the gathering that will see participation of bureaucrats, hydropower developers, financial institutions, and foreign investors.
The event will be held under the patronage of the Government of Nepal and the Ministry of Energy.
Other agendas to be discussed during the two-day gathering are project financing in hydropower development, operation of transmission line grid company and development of hydropower in a sustainable manner among others.
IPPAN has hailed the government's Energy Development Plan 2016-2026 unveiled in February, urging the government to focus on the implementation part.
Organized right after the end of insurgency, Power Summit 2006 marked the beginning of the series of such gatherings of hydropower stakeholders. Many foreign investors, interested to put their money into the country's hydropower sector, had participated in the meeting.
Things have changed for good over the past decade. “Banks and financial institutions (BFIs) have started financing hydropower projects which was very rare a decade ago," Bisht said, adding that increment in paid-up capital of BFIs to Rs 8 billion has enabled them to inject fund into the sector which was getting least priority earlier.
Initial public offerings (IPOs) of hydropower projects have seen overwhelming response, particularly after 2013 when Power Summit 2013 was organized.
“The first summit held in 2007 and the second one held a year later had drawn a large number of investors to Nepal. The government issued survey license of many projects after the two summits,” Bisht said, adding that the country, however, could not receive investment as the years that followed were full of tumults and agitation.
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