Workshop on improving South-South relations in Hydropower kicks off tomorrow

The Ministry of Power and Renewable Energy, Janathakshan (Gte) Ltd, Energy Forum, Hydro Empowerment Network (HPNet) and WISIONS (Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Energy, and Environment) will organise the Practice-to-Policy Exchange for Grid Interconnected Micro and Mini Hydropower in South and Southeast Asia in Colombo, Sri Lanka from January 26-29.

The event will focus on advancing grid-interconnected micro / mini hydropower (MHP), by bringing together utilities, Government, and developer actors from nine countries in the region namely India, Indonesia, Nepal, Malaysia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Partnering organisation Hydro Empowerment Network (HPNET) is one of the key knowledge exchange platforms and networks devised to MHP in South and Southeast Asia. 

“The development of MHPs is increasing in numbers and old projects are now approached by national or regional grids. Policymakers typically perceive off-grid, small-scale distributed rural electrification solutions like micro hydro as only pre-electrification. In most developing country contexts the excitement for the connection of existing MHP to the central grid in rural areas is increasing but there are only few countries in the region, which has policy framework and some of them have already piloted few projects,” said HPNet Policy Co-ordinator  Madhusudhan Adhikari who is also an expert in the field of renewable energy. 

The event goals are to develop recommendations and country-specific strategies.  The program includes thematic panels, exchange, and field visits of grid-interconnected projects.  

“Access to clean, affordable and reliable electricity is an important aspect in the new sustainable development focused global development agenda. Small hydro electricity is an important area in this regard as we gradually experience the need and demand to transform decentralised hydro systems to grid-connected systems in the context of energy sector development across the world. Appropriate technologies, policies and practices will have utmost importance in this process and I believe the workshop will be an important step to enhance the overall capacities in Asia in this transformation process,” said Janathakshan CEO Ranga Pallawala.

This workshop will focus on the policies, regulations, financing, and technologies required to sustainably interconnect micro and mini hydropower (MHP) projects to the national grid. The event organised with the Ministry of Power and Renewable Energy will start on 26 January.

Briefs on Organisations

Janathakshan (GTE) Limited is a not-for-profit company established in 2011 to promote sustainable and green solutions in development to Sri Lanka and beyond. 

The Energy Forum of Sri Lanka is a nonprofit organisation working to create an environment that enables the promotion and adoption of renewable and distributed energy, energy efficiency and integrated sustainable resource management mechanisms.

WISIONS sets out to make clean energy a default solution for basic energy needs in developing regions, by helping local partners to identify successes and bring them to scale through regional networks.

The Hydro Empowerment Network (HPNet) has been supported by the WISIONS of Sustainability Initiative at the Wuppertal Institute since its start in 2013.