12th ITIF Asia 2015 International Exhibition Experts for energy commission to chalk out national plan

Proposing the privatisation of power generation companies, the energy experts at a regional conference held here on Tuesday called for formation of a permanent Energy Commission in the energy-scarce country. The 12th ITIF Asia 2015 International Exhibition and Conferences was inaugurated by CEO TDAP S.M Munir here at Karachi Expo Centre, as at least 47 delegates from 11 countries attending the event.
According to the event's organisers, Ecommerce Gateway Pakistan, more than 104 international and domestic exhibitors are showcasing their products and services at the exhibition. While more than 35000 visitors, mostly from corporate sector, are expected at the three-day event. "A permanent Energy Commission should be constituted and it should work for a national (energy) plan," said Kalim Siddiqui, chief executive officer of REHKAL Oil.
Instead of a dozen different agencies the country should have an energy ministry which could under one umbrella remove all bureaucratic hurdles to facilitate the industry stakeholders. The energy situation in Pakistan, he said, was not very good and required the government to diversify its source of fuel to generate cheap energy through shifting to renewable energy.
He said in Pakistan around 65-70 percent of power was being produced from Furnace Oil the production cost of which was twice higher from the prevailing power tariff. This, he said, created lingering issues like circular debt which still was haunting the country.
This could be avoided had the country had a long term national action plan to achieve self-sufficiency in renewable energy generation. The expert lamented that as 40 percent of Pakistan was still no excess to power, the remaining 60 percent was facing shortage of electricity. Lauding the present government for launching several power generation projects, Kalim said the base of the same should be increased. He said the country should privatise power generation and power purchasing process through competitive bidding like that of Turkey.
Inam A. Osmani, senior vice chairman of Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC), said energy was a crucial issue faced by Pakistan, as power scarcity was badly affecting lives and industries in the country. He lamented that while countries world over were fast shifting to the cheaper renewable energy sources like wind, coal and civil nuclear power Pakistan was still relying on imported furnace oil for the purpose. "The good news, however, is that the only 1000 MW power added to the national grid in 2014 was wind power," he told the audience.
CEO TDAP S.M Munir welcomed what he said 47 foreign delegates from 11 countries to the international conference and exhibition. The TDAP chief observed that the global dimensions of alternative energy generation were fast changing. He expressed his aggressive support to local and international efforts to generate renewable energy in Pakistan. The world, he said, had posted a tremendous growth in renewable energy the investment profile of which had swelled to $480 billion in 2014 from $322 billion a couple of years back.
"If China can produce 4700 MW of solar power in one year, why can't we?" he asked. Shamsuddin Shaikh, CEO of Engro Powergen, said huge coal reserves in Thar fields of Sindh were a blessing for the energy hungry Pakistan which was facing problems of less and expensive electricity. "We always find all good things outside Pakistan," he lamented and claimed that the coal mined in Europe was "similar or worse than ours". He said while India was running about 50 percent of its power generating units on locally-produced coal, Pakistan still was importing 3-4 million tons of the same to do the same.