PTC India to host summit to catalyse power development in Nepal

PTC India (PTC) will host a conference here Aug 26-27 to catalyze hydropower development in Nepal and prospect of exploring market like India.

The two-day Power Summit-2013 to be held in association with the Independent Power Producer's Association, Nepal (IPPAN) will bring investors, stakeholders and experts from India, Brazil, China, the Czech Republic, France, South Korea, Japan, Norway, and the US, among others, for the focused discussions on "Hastening the Pace of Hydropower Development".

It will cover all the major areas that are prerequisite for the complete overhaul of Nepal's energy sector.

Earlier, the leading provider of power trading solutions in India and IPPAN had organized such summits in 2006, 2007 and 2008.

PTC is a key player in India-Nepal energy business and selling power to energy-hungry Nepal since long and has invested in constituting cross-border transmission lines between the two countries. And, PTC is the only nodal agency that Nepal is required to deal with power trade with India.

According to the IPPAN President Subarna Das Shrestha, the upcoming summit will conduct workshops on four thematic issues -- project with local investments and for domestic consumption, projects for domestic market with FDI components, export oriented projects with foreign investment and power market mechanism.

Nepal has potential of generating 83,000 MW, but it is hardly able to generate 700 MW at present. And it believes that India will be the biggest market.

Currently, as the Himalayan nation's energy demands continuously surge, Nepal and PTC are in talks to provide 180 MW energy to Nepal from India from different points of Bihar.

As prospects are high to export and import of energy from both sides, India has been floating to sign a power trade agreement with Nepal to ease cross-border business of electricity.

"We are willing to sign such pact with Nepal," charge de affaires at Indian Embassy in Kathmandu Jaideep Mazumdar had said recently in Kathmandu during the first session of Nepal-India Business Conclave, a monthly talk series jointly organized by Nepal-India Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Indian Embassy in Kathmandu.

"We are positive about signing the agreement as it would benefit northern Indian states, which are now depending on fuels like coal that pollute the environment," Mazumdar had said.

However, due to political instability in Nepal for the last seven years, the much-talked about Nepal-India power trade is hanging in the balance.