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Kathmandu,Monday February 28, 2000 Fagun 16, 2056.
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Will cheap energy happen ?
This relates to two articles on Nepal hydropower
development in TKP’s 7th anniversary supplement on February 19 which I found
interesting. While the article by Prof Binayak Bhadra strongly emphasizes on the critical
need for intrinsically cheap hydropower for national development, Mr Bikash Pandey focuses
on the scenario of “abundant energy” for consumers within a period of 5 to 10
years after the cancellation of Arun III.
The intrinsic realism of Prof Bhadra and the
optimism of Mr Pandey contain some thoughtful elements that need to be magnanimously
synthesized if we are honest about the overwhelming majority of the country’s poor.
Especially the “hydropower and development integration model” of Prof Bhadra and
“internal rupee based development alternative” of Mr Pandey deserve serious
consideration. I, for one, have been arguing in favour of autonomous dedicated regional
energy system that feeds enterprises in the nearby centres. Such a dedicated system will
directly add value to the products and services and thus intrinsically support poverty
alleviation by enlarging the regional employment base. Such a system can provide cheaper
energy to enterprises as there will be minimal transmission loss and no theft of energy.
After cancellation of Arun III, Kali Gandaki “A” Project should have been
an example of such an energy system fully internalized with regional socio-economic
conditions. The conventional growth model of energy development will not automatically
help the poor. It may help commercialized energy groups.
As a consumer, however, I fail to understand Mr
Pandey’s assertion that competition between Independent Power Producers (IPP) and NEA
must bring the energy prices down. To support his assertion, he specifically refers to the
difference in the per kilowatt hour price between Khimti, Bhote Koshi on the one hand and
Chilime and Puwa Khola projects on the other. In reality, this difference seems to
indicate the higher “ ability” of the foreign IPP to extract a more
favourable price from NEA. We have not observed such ability in the domestic IPP at
Chilime and Puwa Khola projects. So where is the competition?
Dr Upendra Gautam,
CMS, Min Bhavan, Kathmandu |
