5th Int’l Wind Energy Summit 2022

Global body urges Pakistan to exempt energy sector SMEs from competitive bidding system to ensure their survival
Karachi
The World Wind Energy Association (WWEA) has urged Pakistan’s government to preferably exempt the small and medium-sized power companies from the competitive bidding system soon to be introduced in the country for new renewable energy projects.
The WWEA put forward this suggestion as its Secretary-General, Stefan Gsänger, appeared via the video-link as the keynote speaker at the 5th International Wind Energy Summit-2022 organised here at a hotel by the Energy Update.
The WWEA Secretary-General said the small and medium-sized power companies should be exempted from the competitive bidding mechanism for their sustainability as the key players in the energy sector.
He said the small and medium power entities should be given special concessions as being the domestic companies that should continue to play their important role in the growth of the energy sector.
“I could give you the example from my own country, Germany, where not just the discussion was taken place but the decision has also been taken to exempt certain types of the small and medium power companies from the auction tariff and go back to the system of the feed-in tariff,” said the WWEA top office-bearer.
He said the recent conflict in international relations had proved the notion that the countries around the world should aim to fulfil 100 per cent of their energy needs through renewable means for the sake of peace and their independence.
He said the WWEA was privileged to be associated with the growth of wind energy production in Sindh.
Gsänger recalled that it was because of the past deliberations organised by the WWEA, which enabled Pakistan set the target of generating 30 per cent of the electricity on the basis of renewable energy sources.
He urged the Pakistani government to clear any confusion regarding the targets set for the renewable energy sector as part of the national energy plan so that all the concerned stakeholders could work together with full commitment to meet these objectives.
He said that for the past many years the investment in the renewable energy sector all over the world had surpassed the capital invested to build new power projects on the basis of fossil fuels and conventional sources of electricity generation.
Resultantly, more clean electricity is being added to the grid all over the world every year than the new power plants built on the basis of non-renewable sources, he said.
He told the audience of the summit that the share of wind energy in the global power sector stood around seven per cent with 1400 terawatt-hours of clean electricity generated.
Shah Jahan Mirza, CEO of Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB), told the audience about the planning done by the AEDB to launch from the next month the process of competitive bidding for new wind and power projects to meet the targets of clean electricity as given in the Indicative Generation Capacity Expansion Plan (IGCEP) 2021-2030.
Chairman of National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA), Tauseef H Farooqui, said the NEPRA stood fully committed to helping out the execution of upcoming wind and solar power projects to meet the targets of clean electricity given in the IGCEP.
He said the renewable forms of power generation had the potential to energize the homes of 60 million Pakistanis without electricity. He said the NEPRA had been expeditiously implementing the regime of net-metering for the use of solar and wind energy by domestic and industrial consumers.
Also speaking on the occasion via the video-link, Muhammad Azfar Ahsan, State Minister and Chairman Board of Investment (BoI), expressed the fullest commitment of the BoI to facilitate foreign investment in the renewable energy sector of Pakistan for overcoming the energy shortfall.
He said the government had the fullest realization of the importance of the clean electricity sector for the protection of the environment and improvement of the national economy as the inexpensive source of electricity.
President of Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI), Muhammad Idrees, said the businessmen and industrialists of the city were fully committed to using renewable means of power generation for uninterrupted electric supply and cutting down the cost of doing business.
He said the KCCI had the aim to work together with all the key stakeholders of the energy sector to increase the usage of electricity generated through alternative means for slashing the massive fuel import bill of Pakistan.
Amjad Ali Awan, CEO of Punjab Public-Private Partnership Authority, informed the audience about the efforts he had made as the former chief of AEDB to expeditiously explore and exploit wind and solar means in the country for clean power generation.
He said that all the concerned stakeholders and government had to speed up their efforts to achieve the ambitious targets set for clean power generation in Pakistan.
He said that it was a long way to go for realising the full potential of Pakistan to generate clean electricity as the country has the means to generate 132 gigawatts of clean power was at present producing merely less than one GWs of renewable energy mainly through wind and energy source.
Naeem Qureshi, Chairman of the organizing committee, expressed his resolve to organize more such conferences to enable the relevant experts and managers to gather on a platform to find practical solutions to the problems hampering the growth of renewable energy market of Pakistan.
Also on the occasion, an exhibition was organized on the sidelines of the summit enabling the key renewable energy sector companies to showcase their latest products and technologies for domestic, commercial, and industrial powers consumers.