Planning Commission officials told Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani in detailed briefing on Friday that Pakistan has been facing serious energy crisis, but no major efforts have been made to improve electricity generation. They said that the country requires integrated energy policy, and that the Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB) should cease to be an independent body and be put under the Planning Commission.
The officials informed the PM that an integrated energy planning model was under development by the Planning Commission. In the presentation, the PM was told that Pakistan can produce 800 mega watts from wind and solar energy in the next five years, and has the capacity to completely manufacture solar and wind power equipment.
The Alternative Energy Development Board was established as an autonomous body attached to the Cabinet Division in 2003. The main task of the Board is to ensure that five percent of total national power generation is to be generated through renewable energy technologies by 2030.
After six year years of AEDB, the country is producing only 6 mega watts electricity from wind energy. The Turkish firm, Zorlu Enerji, single wind power producer established power project in Thatta district. In the first phase, 6 mega watt energy would be generated with the help of five 1.2 MGW wind turbine. The electricity is to be transported to Jhimphir grid station by Hyderabad Electric Supply Company. This amount of power generation is sufficient for 6900 homes in Hyderabad region.
AEDB has issued 93 letters of intent (LOIs) to national and multinational companies to establish wind energy projects in the country. Many projects are in pipeline. Out of 93 companies, 12 companies have been successful in land allotment.
Most of the companies which have been allotted land have been facing severe financing problems due world recession and causes delay in projects, AEDB officials told this correspondent. Pakistan has a tremendous wind corridor and can have capacity to generate 50,000 MGW from wind on available power transmission infrastructure.
AEDB officials said that wind energy equipment's are mainly manufactured in Germany Australia and a few other countries. "High oil prices in previous years increased their demand which have been placed beyond the capacity of wind energy equipment manufacturers, the official said. Besides wind energy, AEDB is working on solar power generation also, but the pace of projects is limited to rural electrification only.
Since 2004, 1001 houses have been provided electrification from solar power in all four provinces, AEDB official said. Another project of 10 to 35 kilowatt electricity is at experiment stage, and the board is installing three solar thermal power plants for demonstration purpose using parabolic trough and dish/sterling technologies. National Assembly finance committee also showed concern on six-year performance of the Alternative Energy Development Board.
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