LAHORE: Availability of reliable and affordable energy is critical for businesses to flourish and citizens to thrive," said Humayun Akhtar Khan Chairperson and CEO Institute for Policy Reforms in his welcoming comments at the online event held by the Institute. He said that one third Pakistanis do not have access to power, and that those who do, suffer from unreliable and expensive supply. He also highlighted the looming challenge of climate change and environmental degradation.
Special Assistant to the Prime Minister Nadeem Babar shared his government's reforms plan for low cost and sustainable energy supply to the people. He emphasized that there can be no improvement until the state-held monopoly is broken and the sector opens up to competitive market forces. Government's one important target is greater reliance on domestic fuel input for generation by utilizing Thar coal and tapping into the country's hydroelectric potential.
He shared his government's ideas for much needed regulatory reforms that creates an open trading environment to buy and sell energy. This will build efficiency and competition. He added that subsidies provided by the government should be targeted towards those who cannot pay.
Pakistan needs more private energy terminals for LNG. In a market based system, sellers should pay a toll to access the pipeline for onward sale to consumers. To improve air quality, from September this year, all petrol imports will comply with Euro Standard 5. Diesel imports will conform with Euro 5 from January 2021.
He recognized that energy supply was unreliable and shared government's plans to raise supply to meet demand, in order to satisfy the needs of a growing economy. His government's agenda was SARA i.e. an energy sector that was sustainable, affordable, practiced responsible use, and was available for all.
Senator Rukhsana Zuberi urged the government to prioritize and shift its focus to renewable energy. As a long-term proponent of solar power, she stated that it is now more affordable than before, and the government must strongly advocate and initiate solar projects to popularize them. She also criticized what she saw was a lack of integrated planning for the energy sector. She counselled the government to concentrate on efficiency and conservation. While future plans were all very well, Pakistani people and firms were burdened by high energy costs and unreliable supply today. So far, what was sold as market based systems and privatization had brought high cost without any improvement in service quality. Indeed, concerns about the gap between policy proposals and actual achievement was a common theme of the meeting.
President FPCCI, Mian Anjum Nisar emphatically stated that the industry is struggling to survive because of the high costs of energy. Pakistani industry is fast losing competitiveness. He strongly critiqued the power supply organizations (WAPDA, Discos and KE) for inefficient maintenance of supply feeders, failing to ensure consistent, uninterrupted power supply. "Our entire economy is paying for the cost of this inefficiency." We need to bring down the costs to at least the same level as the rest of the region. Otherwise the industries cannot continue, jobs cannot be created, our products lose competitiveness in the market, and trade deficit will rise.
Dr Saleem Ali, distinguished Professor University of Delaware, recommended a systems approach from the point of view of energy density and efficiency. Government must prioritize the most effective sources of energy for the economy. While government's goal for self-reliance and energy security was understandable, it must not come at the cost of efficiency. While Pakistan develops resilience within its domestic systems, government must also build better international alliances to obtain resources at cost.
Dr Ali also highlighted a need for smart grids with storage capacity in areas where it can be effective. He suggested that the pipeline infrastructure deserves more attention: high maintenance costs require that areas of energy density should be prioritized. He ended his talk by sharing a hierarchy of global problems created by Nobel Laureate Richard Smalley, which placed the need for energy at the top of all global problems. Energy ranked above water and food.-PR
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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