Kathmandu, Feb 14: The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has decided to open power purchase agreement (PPA) for hydropower projects up to 10 megawatts. The meeting of the Board of Directors of the NEA held on February 7 (Magh 24) has decided to open PPAs with run-of-the-river (ROR) and semi-reservoir (PROR) hydropower projects of up to 10 megawatts.
According to the authority, the electricity of the hydropower projects up to 10 megawatts will be purchased on the basis of ‘take or pay’ provision. The electricity of the project will be purchased for dry season (Mangsir 16 to Jestha 15) at Rs. 8.40 per unit and for rainy season (Jestha 16 to Mangsir 15) at Rs. 4.80 per unit.
Kulman Ghising, Executive Director of Nepal Electricity Authority, said that the PPA limit (quota) have been waived for smaller hydropower generation.
“Due to the quota, hydropower projects of up to ten megawatts were not being completed. Now the quota is not applicable for projects up to 10 megawatts, so the PPA can be done at any time and regardless of the capacity. This will encourage small domestic investors”, Executive Director Ghising said, “Now we will do as much and as often as possible for hydropower projects that have and will have grid connection agreements up to ten megawatts.”
So far, 89 projects of up to 10 megawatts have submitted applications to the authority. The capacity of these project is 351 MW. Out of that, 44 projects of 195 megawatts have been completed with grid related agreements. Based on the target of 15,000 megawatts to be produced in the next 10 years, the production mix was set to include 25 percent of reservoir-based projects, 30 percent of semi-reservoir projects and 45 percent of ROR-based projects.
Most of the projects up to ten megawatts are ROR. The authority has so far carried out PPA for 9,200 megawatts of electricity. #Nepal
