Saying that some “fake” developers were holding licenses for hydropower projects worth some 1,600 MW but doing nothing in terms of power production, the government has said it will scrap such licenses as the developers have shown apathy to build these projects.

Minister for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Pampha Bhusal said the license holders of these projects have even completed the process of signing the power purchase agreements (PPAs) with the Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA). “The government has started its work to make these fraudulent developers public,” said Bhusal, speaking at a press meet organized by the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation on Sunday.

Bhusal added that the government is looking forward to revising the licensing procedures to minimize this trend of just holding the hydropower licenses. She, however, praised the role of the private sector in production of hydroelectricity that helped end the years-long problem of load-shedding in the country.

According to the Department of Electricity Development, the government has issued licenses for 14,000 MW of hydroelectricity projects while developers have forwarded applications to produce 5,000 MW of electricity.

Meanwhile, NEA Managing Director Kulman Ghising said the NEA will export up to 1,000 MW of electricity to India in the next one year. Currently, the NEA has been exporting 364 MW of electricity to India.

According to Ghising, they have proposed to Indian authorities to sell an additional 600 MW of electricity in the Indian market. The NEA has proposed to export electricity produced out of 456 MW of Upper Tamakoshi Hydropower Project, 42 MW of Mistrikhola, 24.2 MW of Likhukhola-A, 23.5 MW of Solukhola and 22.1 MW of Chilime hydropower projects.

The NEA sold 242,683,000 units of electricity worth Rs 1.83 billion to India in just one month between mid-July and mid-August. In 2021/22, Nepal exported electricity worth Rs 3.88 billion to India.