With adequate electricity production in the country recently, debates have been whetted on how to ensure electricity as a prerequisite to industrial development and the national economy by augmenting its export.
The experts in this sector have stressed the need for finding the international market of Nepali electricity by clearing legal and technical hurdles for industrial development.
Similarly, an increase in the internal consumption of energy is equally stressed. The viability is more on the export of hydropower to Bangladesh and India. Export of electricity would reduce trade loss, the speakers argued.
The views on this were shared at a program organized jointly by Economic Policy Incubator and Society of Economic Journalists Nepal in the federal capital on Sunday. On the occasion, Minister for Energy, Hydro Resources, and Irrigation Pampha Bhushal said the time had come for Nepal to prefer energy diplomacy to political and economic diplomacy.
She also shared that the newly appointed Ambassador to India, Shankar Sharma, was also reminded to focus on energy diplomacy during his tenure there. According to her, a draft of the new law was prepared to remove legal and technical hurdles to this end.
The bill on it would be passed in the winter session of parliament if there would not be any political obstruction, Minister Bhushal believed. She urged private sectors to make preparation to export hydropower with adequate capacity building for industrial development. Minister Bhushal also assured of a reliable alternative to the private sectors if needed.
Similarly, former energy minister Radha Gyawali underlined that the power purchase party (PPP) must not be halted. To export electricity to Bangladesh, both Nepal and Bangladesh should make a joint proposal before India, she suggested.
However, National Assembly member Radhesyam Adhikari complained that the legislature did not get more than 20 percent time to exercise its rights while formulating the bill.
“While going through the bill, there is the repetition of ‘as per assigned’. We should be given authority- even 20 percent to fine-tune it.” “What’s the meaning of 40 years for the run-off-the-river project, and 50 years for the reservoir-based project,” he wondered.
Adhikari strongly advocated for rewriting the bill. He argued that the provisions in the bill were insufficient to ensure power trade. On the occasion, Chairperson of Electricity Regulation Commission, Dilli Bahadur Singh, said the Commission would cooperate with the efforts made on electricity export.
Joint Secretary at Energy Ministry Madhu Prasad Bhetuwal viewed cautious management of electricity as the need of the hour. According to him, based on the present level of power demand, the surplus would increase to 50,000 GigaWatt Hour by 2028.
“Hefty production cost compared to the neighboring countries is the major challenge,” he observed. According to NEA Chief Executive Officer Kulman Ghising, how energy consumption could be increased is a serious challenge at present. Nabil Bank’s CEO Anil Keshari Shah worried that if the hydropower sector faced challenges, it would be a huge loss to the country.
“If the hydropower sector is dented, banks would go bankrupt,” he warned, urging for apt management of hydropower in the country. Similarly, Nepal Infrastructures Bank’s CEO Ramkrishna Khatiwada viewed energy infrastructure as an opportunity for Nepal.
