ISLAMABAD: Small Hydropower Projects upto 50MW are reportedly lamenting unfair treatment on the part of Private Power Infrastructure Board (PPIB)/Power Division as without standardized security documents for projects they are unable to arrange financing.
In a letter to Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, Asad Umar, who is also Chairman CCoE, Abdul Karim Qureshi, CEO, Riali Hydropower Project gave reference to a letter written by the company on November 24, 2021 in which it informed the Minister Planning that the minutes issued subsequent to CCoE meeting Oct 29, 2021 did not reflect his directions.
According to the letter, during the meeting, it was agreed that small hydro power projects having valid Letter of Support (LoS) from PPIB and included in IGCEP committed projects shall be implemented under the framework of security agreements for small hydropower projects submitted by Power Division.
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Hence, the top brass of the company requested Asad Umar to direct the relevant department(s) to rectify the error in the minutes of meeting and for inclusion of the issue as an agenda item in the upcoming meeting of CCoE.
However, the company said that it was disappointing that the issue was not included in subsequent CCoE meetings. Instead, the Power Division is again in the process of circulating the summary of small HPP along with framework of security agreements to different stakeholders for comments.
According to the company, the exercise seeking stakeholder’s comments on the summary has already been carried out by Ministry prior to submitting the summary to ECC/CCoE. Therefore, repetition will only lead to further loss of time and delays in IGCEP approved CODs of these (unlucky) small hydro power projects.
“We as investors request you to take serious note of the issue. The Company has executed Energy Purchase Agreement (EPA) with CPPA-G in April, 2020 after continuous and consistent efforts of 18 years,” said the CEO in his letter to the Minister Planning.
According to the power firm the summary was being submitted by PPIB to the Ministry in the first week of January 2021, and unfortunately it is still under process with no end in sight. The non-availability of GoP approved security documents has halted progress in soliciting project financing commitments from the potential lenders.
The power company has requested the Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiatives to direct the relevant department(s) for inclusion of this issue as an agenda item in the upcoming CCoE meeting and PPIB/Power Division may be directed to apprise CCoE about the factual position/advance status of the project, to reach a just conclusion.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021
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