Islamabad – NEPRA has Tuesday said that Competitive Trading Bilateral Contracts Market (CTBCM) would be a game-changer for the power industry of Pakistan.
NEPRA hosted a webinar on Competitive Trading Bilateral Contracts Market (CTBCM). A large number of renowned national and international experts and stakeholders of the electric power sector participated. NEPRA Chairman, Tauseef H. Farooqi opened the webinar by thanking the participants and highlighted light on the objectives of the webinar on the CTBCM Model. He expressed that CTBCM will prove to be a game-changer for the Power Industry of Pakistan.
He stated that NEPRA has approved the detailed design and implementation plan of the CTBCM that will usher in a competitive environment in the power sector benefiting the country. He further said that to fully understand the implementation, the webinar on CTBCM has been arranged to disseminate and develop an understanding of the different stakeholders on the Wholesale Electricity Market (WEM) as well as to inform the participants on power sector reforms, challenges and objectives expected to result due to CTBCM. Ms Beatriz Arizo, Expat Consultant of NEPRA on CTBCM explained in detail how the Global Electricity Markets operate and shared her insights on a comparison between other countries and Pakistan’s Power Sector while Mr Roberto D’Addario, CPPA-G Consultant highlighted important milestones and implementation roadmap of CTBCM in Pakistan. Mr Omer Haroon, Head of Strategy and Market Development, CPPA-G also explained the current status of the electricity market in Pakistan and its transition from Single Buyer Regime (SBR) to CTBCM.
However, there have been several issues that may cause bottlenecks in way of implementing CTBCM. These questions were raised during the webinar. They included chronic financial challenges power sector is facing and they are largely attributable to theft, low ratio of recoveries, tariff issues, and unpaid dues, mostly by Federal and Provincial government entities. Competitive Trading Bilateral Contracts Market (CTBCM) itself is also vague. Available information only provides a theoretical picture of what the CTBCM is meant to be and leaves many questions unanswered.
The model has been adopted from Turkey where there was a power deficit at the time this model was adopted, Pakistan is in a power surplus situation and likely to remain for the next decade with expensive power already locked in. The circular debt is also there which needs to be addressed to execute such ideas of a competitive market.
