. KATHMANDU: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has for the first time made the process of adding Revised Commercial Operation Date (RCOD) of under-construction hydropower projects based on clear criteria. <\/p>\n
Now, on the basis of the physical progress of the project, the status of fulfillment of the obligations under the PPA and the status of RCOD, different arrangements will be implemented by categorizing the project into four groups. Earlier, the NEA Board of Directors meeting held on June 14 had decided to categorize 320 under-construction hydropower projects into Group ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’.<\/p>\n
According to the same decision, the process of adding RCOD to the projects that are in group ‘A’ and ‘B’ in the first phase has been initiated. <\/p>\n
Minister <\/p>\n
for Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation Biraj Bhakta Shrestha on Wednesday said that the government has brought the policy to add RCOD to facilitate the completion of the under-construction projects and not to create problems for the private sector. He added that the Ministry was committed to developing an institutional system to make such decision not as per the wishes of the individual. <\/p>\n
Stating that the government was sensitive towards the investment security of the private sector, he stressed that the promoters should also fulfill their responsibilities on time.<\/p>\n
He was of the view that the energy sector would pick up the expected momentum only when there was a balance between the government and the private sector. <\/p>\n
According to NEA, 320 hydropower projects with a capacity of 8,292 MW are currently under construction.<\/p>\n
Among them, 150 projects with a capacity of 4,491 MW are in Group ‘A’ and 68 projects with a capacity of 1,420 MW are in Group ‘B’. The rest of the projects are categorised into Group ‘C’ and ‘D’. <\/p>\n
Group <\/p>\n
‘A’ consists of projects that have not expired RCOD and have fulfilled the obligations stipulated in the PPA including production license, financial management, land management or have yet to complete the contract as per the agreement. <\/p>\n
Group <\/p>\n
‘B’ includes projects that have not come into operation due to delay in construction of transmission lines and substations, projects that have received approval to add RCOD with evidences and projects that have achieved at least 25 percent physical progress till the completion of RCOD. <\/p>\n
Such projects will be monitored regularly.<\/p>\n
The Department of Electricity Trade will give instructions to complete the project on time and it can be reclassified within six months if necessary. <\/p>\n
In contrast, Group ‘C’ categorizes projects that have not fulfilled basic obligations such as production license, financial management or land management or have achieved less than 25 per cent physical progress at the time of completion of RCOD.<\/p>\n
Such projects will be issued ‘Notice of Default’ as per the PPA. If there is no improvement or satisfactory response is not received even after that, the process of canceling the agreement will be initiated, the authority said. <\/p>\n
Group ‘D’ includes projects that have not fulfilled the necessary obligations even after the completion of RCOD or have revoked the survey and production license. <\/p>\n
The authority has made the work procedure of 2071 for the measurement of physical progress. Significant progress has been made in the construction of major structures such as headworks, tunnel, pipeline and powerhouse in the hydropower project, while the panel purchase agreement, opening of LC, completion of land management and construction of mounting structure and foundation in the solar project will also be accepted as an indicator of progress. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Uttam Vlon, senior vice-president of the Independent Power Producers’ Association of Nepal (IPPAN), said that the RCOD should be added to all projects with certain conditions on the basis of the principle of natural justice.<\/p>\n
He urged the government to give the final opportunity to all the projects with the commitment to complete the PPA within a year and then start the construction within six months. <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
. KATHMANDU: Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) has for the first time made the process of adding Revised Commercial Operation Date (RCOD) of under-construction hydropower projects based on clear criteria. Now, on the basis of the physical progress of the project, the status of fulfillment of the obligations under the PPA and the status of RCOD,Continue reading “320 hydropower projects to be categorised into four groups”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":78733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[147],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-samachar-en"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/34f5de8e-a05d-4321-9d04-28f910b207d7_5939cea5.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=78746"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78747,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78746\/revisions\/78747"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/media\/78733"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arthakhabar.com\/ak_api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}