Third Power Summit to kick off on Tuesday
With the objective of promoting hydropower cooperation between Nepal and India, particularly among the business community of the two countries, the third Power Summit is being held from Tuesday in Kathmandu.
"There is a huge yearning in Nepal to regain the opportunities lost in the last ten years due to conflict. There cannot be such a good match between India – which is hungry for energy – and Nepal – which is rich in hydropower especially since the hydropower is now being regarded as a trading commodity," said Arun Chaudhary, president of Nepal India Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NICCI).
"We have been holding power summit since 2006 in order to promote the hydropower cooperation at business to business level apart from government to government level," said Sandip Shah, president of Independent Power Producers Association of Nepal (IPPAN). He said that the time is now ripe to start delivering since the government, too, has declared its policy of developing 10,000 MW of power in ten years.
"You should first develop power for your own consumption. The surplus can be exported to India. We are always ready to welcome that. Let us not allow water to flow away without creating wealth," said TN Thakur, Chairman and Managing Director of PTC India Limited.
Deepak Amitabh, Director of Finance of PTC – a nodal agency for power trade in India – said the business to business partnership should be win-win situation for all involved in the value chain to succeed.
The third power summit is being held at a time when the government has talked about developing 10,000 MW in ten years. Experts say that the cost of developing such a huge volume of power would stand at over Rs 2000 billion.
The Independent Power Producers' Association, Nepal (IPPAN), PTC India and Nepal India Chamber of Commerce and Industry (NICCI) are jointly organizing the two-day summit.
More than 300 delegates from India, Nepal and other countries are taking part in the summit. Some of the Indian sponsors of the event are leading names of Indian power sector such as – Jindal, GMR, Suzlon, Athena, AES, IL&FS, and Satluj Jal Vidyut Nigam. Similarly, from Nepal, SN Power, BPC, ICTC, West Seti and Moserbaer are sponsoring the event.
The two-day summit would primarily focus on the hydropower cooperation between Nepal and India along with the discussions on the regulatory environment and various project development issues impacting the growth of hydropower in Nepal. During the summit, a plenary session has been kept to discuss upon the various issues relating to transmission, interconnection and power trade.
The power summit would also see the participation from the leading development financial institutions, eg the World Bank, IFC, DEG, ADB etc that provide with the financiers' perspective on the various hydropower projects in Nepal. The discussion would also take place on the Developers' Perspective pertaining to risk in the hydropower projects. The delegates would discuss in length the various models of cooperation that could be possible between India and Nepal. nepalnews.com sd Sep 22 08
