Nepal looking for Korean hydropower developers

The Nepalese Embassy last week invited a group of hydropower experts to Seoul, in an effort to find developers in Korea to meet power shortages in the country.

“Our focus is hydropower,” said Kul Man Ghising, managing director of the Chilime Hydropower Company, during a conference on Nov. 5. “During the dry season, which is between January and May, for 14 to 18 hours out of 24 people don’t have electricity throughout the country.”

Nearly 30 hydropower plants have the capacity to generate 659 MW of electricity.

Nepal has the capacity to generate 719 MW of electricity, which means more than 90 percent of its power comes from hydropower. But during the dry season, the shortage is estimated at 600 MW, according to Ghising.

Korea has the capacity to generate 83,000 MW out of which 6,400 MW, 8 percent, comes from hydropower plants.

Nepal’s landscape is a perfect fit for hydropower. A public-led effort has been made in the domestic hydropower industry, yet the country still relies heavily on foreign expertise in building dams and reservoirs.

Oil, gas and coal are scare and pricy commodities in the country. Oil is imported from India, but its amount fluctuates according to political conditions.

Foreign interest in the hydropower development is rather stagnant.

Yi Bo-seuk, general manager of the project management team at Korea South-East Power (KOSEP), said KOSEP’s project involves risks.

KOSEP has one ongoing hydropower plant project in the north of Kathmandu. Construction of the plant with a capacity of generating 216 MW will begin as early as October next year.

One of the big risks is political instability. Conflicts between the ruling party and the Maoist Communist Party have led to constant changes of government for the last decade. Also, Korean developers cited inconsistency in hydropower development policy.

However, Yi said the Nepal project is worth the risk.

“Because by the time everything is settled, there won’t be any opportunity,” he said.

Besides the hydropower experts, the embassy invited representatives from the tourism, agriculture, pharmaceutical education and information technology sector to the conference.

“I am fully convinced that this would bring an opportunity for the potential investors to get together at one place and grab the opportunities through sharing the information and reaping the benefits that Nepal has offered to foreign direct investment,” said Kaman Singh Lama, ambassador of Nepal to Korea. <The Korea Times/Kim Se-jeong>