Q&A: Generating Rs29.32 billion from power exports is a remarkable national milestone

Newly-elected IPPAN President Mohan Kumar Dangi emphasises the necessity of power trading rights for private developers, the causes behind the PPA backlog and the strategic roadmaps required to transform Nepal’s energy sector.

For a country aiming for ambitious energy targets, Nepal’s private power producers find themselves navigating a maze of regulatory halts and a massive gridlock. The Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) currently faces a backlog of unsigned Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) totalling nearly 16,000 megawatts, leaving project developers in uncertainty. While the government previously introduced a policy framework to generate 15,000 MW, rapid exhaustion of designated quotas led to a prolonged suspension of standard PPAs since 2018/19. As developers call for policy consistency and open market access to allow private sector power trading, the urgency to address these systemic bottlenecks has never been higher.