National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) said on Wednesday that Pakistan’s energy sector is under acute stress of take or pay mode of contract which have long-term implications.
Addressing Energy Week, Nepra’s member, tariff, Saif Ullah Chatha said the purpose of the seminar is to provide a platform for interaction and discussion to combat energy challenges. He was of the view that on one side there is cry of capacity trap and surplus energy and on the other still large areas of the country are without electricity.
“The reasons of importing coal, RLNG when Pakistan has humongous coal reserves in Thar should also been discussed,” he said, adding that country’s hydropower generation is still largely un-harnessed.
Chatha further stated that high T&D losses, low recoveries, inefficient distribution network and less capacity of the transmission has put the grid lock around the neck of the country hampering economic development.
“Restrictive and retrogressive mind set of the energy sector players’ also work against modernization and new technologies and new ideas. Net metering, mini and micro grids, wheeling should also be discussed in the conference. There is a need to reduce losses and price of electricity to make our industry and business more competitive,” he maintained.
He said, decarburization of energy sector, more generation from solar, wind, hydro, hybrid technologies, off grid solar and solarisation of tube-wells are some of the areas which need to be discussed in such gatherings.
The innovation session was mainly focused on the recent trends in Renewable Energy (RE), integrated energy planning, solar wind hybrid model, virtual generation & grid, emerging prospects of distributed generation and prospects of electric vehicles in Pakistan.
The innovation session was attended by various representatives of utilities and industry, academia of NUST and LUMS, international and national energy experts including Siemens, IRENA, USAID and various project developers.
He also appreciated the efforts of the innovation day’s managing team for conducting such a fruitful session. Furthermore, the innovative ideas and valuable recommendations shared by the experts were highly appreciated by Nepra and the participants.
