Kathmandu: Election activities for the new leadership of the Independent Power Producers’ Association Nepal (IPPAN) have intensified. As the new leadership is set to be elected through the general assembly scheduled for June 12, senior vice-president candidate Uttam Bhlon Lama has unveiled his team along with the “IPPAN Vision 2029.”
Speaking at a program organized in Kathmandu on Wednesday, Bhlon presented his commitments for the next three years, focusing on energy sector reforms, investment security, expansion of electricity trade, and policy facilitation. Under IPPAN’s provision, the senior vice-president automatically becomes president in the next term.
Bhlon’s panel includes Uttar Kumar Shrestha, Him Pathak, Susan Karmacharya, and Bikram Bista as vice-president candidates. T.N. Acharya is contesting for general secretary, Kavita Kadel for deputy general secretary, and Narendra Ballabh Pant for treasurer. Likewise, Bijay Mohan Bhattarai, Kuber Mani Nepal, Suman Joshi, Shankar Basyal, and Abigya Malla have been nominated for secretary positions, while Anup Acharya, Jagat Bahadur Pokharel, Kadam KC, Barnan Lamichhane, Isa Shrestha, and Pratima Gyawali are contesting as members.
The “IPPAN Vision 2029” unveiled by Bhlon’s team aims to establish the energy sector as the main pillar of Nepal’s economic prosperity while making the country self-reliant in energy. The team stated that more than Rs 5 trillion in investment will be required to achieve the government’s target of producing 30,000 MW of electricity within the next 10 years, emphasizing that the private sector will play a decisive role.
Bhlon said his team would work to resume power purchase agreements (PPAs) for hydropower projects totaling around 12,000 MW, which are currently stalled. The team has also pledged to make the PPA system more investment-friendly and time-relevant, abolish the “take and pay” provision, and introduce separate tariff structures for storage and pumped-storage projects.
The panel has also demanded that the hydropower project license period be extended from 35 years to 50 years. It has prioritized implementing a “single-window system” to end delays in forest and environmental clearances and has called for declaring the energy sector a priority sector with concessional loans available at interest rates below 7 percent.
Similarly, the vision document mentions initiatives to establish the necessary legal and policy frameworks for private sector participation in transmission line construction and electricity trade. The team also stressed the need for diplomatic initiatives to effectively advance the government’s plans to export 10,000 MW of electricity to India and 5,000 MW to Bangladesh over the next decade.
Bhlon’s team has further pledged to develop IPPAN not only as a pressure group but also as a policy research center. They claim that if policy ambiguities, administrative complexities, and transmission infrastructure bottlenecks in the energy sector are removed, Nepal could emerge as a major energy hub in South Asia within the next decade.
Urjasanchar
