Greaves chief says fuel has become very expensive commodity worldwide; advises shutting of all shopping malls at least once a week, stresses need to utilize daylight, suggests online education classes
Fuel has become a very expensive commodity the world over as we are under an obligation to work on the cause of energy conservation more than any other country given the very dismal situation of our foreign exchange reserves.
We need to again adopt the daylight saving system as we adopted it over a decade back. We should shut all our shopping malls at least once a week, open our markets early in the day for maximum utilization of daylight, and also adopt the culture of work besides attending classes from home once in a week as we did in the Covid era.
This was stated by Aamer Raza, Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer of Greaves Pakistan, in an exclusive interview with the Energy Update in which he commented on the current state of Pakistan’s energy sector. Following are the important excerpts from his interview for our readers:
Energy Update: Tell our readers about Greaves.
Aamer Raza: We are mainly an engineering company. We have been operating in Pakistan for the past 65 years. We earlier started working in the energy sector. Later, we ventured into the CNG sector. We had a quite large market share in the CNG sector. Then we started diversifying our business and established different divisions for the purpose. In the power sector, we are involved in the business of UPS, generators, and renewable energy. We have also been working with the oil marketing companies as we provide them with the necessary equipment. We install the full setup of automatic generators for the industries. We also work as EPC contractors for solar energy projects. Our work in the clean energy sector was a natural diversification of our business as we have been involved in the energy sector from day one.
EU: What are the services of Greaves in the renewable energy sector of Pakistan?
Mr Raza: We carried out many good solar energy projects in the past 10 years. We have completed solar projects with a cumulative generation capacity of 80MW. Our projects have been built for all sorts of industrial, commercial, and industrial consumers. We provide our services in the solar energy sector with tier-one products. We provide our services in this sector as an EPC contractor with a complete range of services.
EU: What is the current state of the clean energy market in Pakistan?
Mr Raza: The import of solar and wind energy equipment has come to a halt in the country due to the government’s decision against imports into the country. This equipment serves as a substitute for fossil fuels. Solar panels are installed for the production of renewable electricity using the energy source of sunlight that substitutes fossil fuels. If we stop the import of this equipment, then it would indicate that we are not in the mood of preventing the outflow of dollars from the country.
The government should understand the point that solar equipment was being brought into the country as a substitute for fossil fuels. Whereas there is no restriction on the import of oil as its shipment to the country continues unabated. The import of solar equipment would go a long way to overcome the balance of payment crisis of the country.
EU: How important is the cause of energy conservation for the people of Pakistan?
Mr Raza: The foreign exchange reserves of a lot many countries around the world have come under stress due to the energy crisis. For the first time, the energy conversation campaign has been launched in Europe. Fuel has become a very expensive commodity the world over as we are under an obligation to work on the cause of energy conservation more than any other country given the very dismal situation of our foreign exchange reserves.
We need to adopt all the available means of energy conservation. We need to again adopt the daylight saving system as we adopted it over a decade back. We should shut all our shopping malls at least once a week, open our markets early in the day for maximum utilization of daylight, and also adopt the culture of work besides attending education classes from home once a week as we did in the Covid era. All these measures could help us save billions of dollars annually. If we adopt all these energy-saving methods, then the government wouldn’t be required to resort to other drastic measures like restricting imports of vital products and materials that affect the situation of employment and industrial production in the country.
EU: What is the focus of the CSR policy of your organization?
Mr Raza: The green initiative is an integral component of all the CSR-related initiatives of our company. We fully believe in the practice of tree plantation at all our offices and production sites.