Nepal Government scraps 11,000MW of hydropower generation licenses

• 10 years ago (2013-08-03)
• David Flin

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The government of Nepal has dismissed over 600 licenses which allowed private firms to generate 11,000MW of hydropower capacity.

Gokarna Pant, a spokesperson with Nepal’s Electricity Development Department, said: “The firms were just holding the licenses without doing any work for years. It was necessary to cancel their licenses and start a new process. Our action will discourage illegal license trade, in which people obtain license, and sell them to prospective buyers or developers instead of working themselves.”

The Electricity Development Department annulled 500 licenses, while the Ministry of Energy terminated 100 in the fiscal year 2012-13, which ended on July 15. Officials said that those firms which did not pay the renewal fee and failed to submit progress reports also had to lose their licenses.

Officials said that with 11,000MW of electricity generation capacity gained through license reform, and 2000MW of projects already reserved, the government can immediately provide around 225 licenses to develop hydropower projects totalling 13,000MW.