LAHORE: The Alternate Energy Development Board (AEDB) has planned to finalize and notify Alternate Renewable Energy (ARE) Policy 2020 soon after incorporating the concerns of provincial governments.
The Board NEPRA has also prepared the Request for Proposal (RFP) packages for carrying out competitive bidding for wind and solar projects falling under Category-III after several rounds of consultations with public and private stakeholders. The RFP packages have been submitted to NEPRA for approval. The AEDB will carry out the competitive bidding once the RFP package is approved by NEPRA and quantum for bidding is communicated by NTDC.
It would also facilitate the projects falling under Category-I and Category-II of the Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCoE) decision for their implementation purposes and competitive bidding for RE projects falling under Category-III upon approval of RFP documents by NEPRA and provision of quantum by NTDC. Implementation strategy and action plan for implementing of the ARE Policy 2019 to achieve the 2025 and 2030 RE targets with the support of World Bank is also on the cards.
According to the State of Industry Report 2020 of National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA), the Board has already taken a number of steps and measures for promotion and development of Renewable Energy (RE), in particular to promote ARE technologies and to attract private sector investments.
These steps included facilitation of the RE power projects in achieving their project milestones and resolution of issues and impediments faced by the project sponsors from different public sector entities.
The AEDB has also initiated the formulation of the new draft ARE Policy 2019 as per the directions of the government, targeting a share of 20% from RE resources in the power mix by 2025 and 30% by 2030. It may be noted that the ARE Policy 2019 was approved in-principle by Council of Common Interests (CCI) in its meeting held on 23 December, 2019 subject to incorporating the concerns of Sindh, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
The AEDB has also facilitated the concerned stakeholders in implementation of net-metering systems under NEPRA's regulations. For mass deployment of net-metering based systems, several supportive steps were taken including trainings and capacity building of DISCOs. The total number of installations reached up to 4,858 by 30th June, 2020 with a cumulative capacity of 88.76MW.
It has also assisted World Bank in study for analyzing the integration of variable renewable energy in the national grid with the objective of increasing the share of renewable energy in the energy mix of the country. The report said that AEDB has engaged World Bank for developing strategy for implementation of new ARE Policy 2019 and undertaking competitive bidding for renewable power generation including localization of the manufacturing technology and advanced R&D.
The AEDB also assisted Ministry of Science & Technology and Ministry of Commerce on development of mechanism for enforcement of the solar quality standards through announcement of SRO 604(I)/2019 requiring Pre-Shipment Inspection (PSI) of solar panels and related equipment consignments imported into the country.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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