Cut in furnace oil prices: Textile industry to shelve renewable energy options

A drastic cut in the furnace oil prices has pushed the textile industry to shelve the renewable as well as the alternative energy options on the backburner and revert to captive power plants for electricity generation. It was told to the visiting Parliamentary State Secretary of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Thomas Silberhorn that a drop in oil prices internationally has slowed down the race for renewable energy sources among the industrialists for the time being. He made a detailed presentation on the cooperation of Germany and the APTMA since 2008.
It may be noted that the APTMA is extending various services for its member mills on sustainable practices, eg Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy, OHAS and water management with the help of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Program of German International Cooperation (GIZ). Jointly, an Energy cell was established at APTMA during 2008 in this respect.
A craze for renewable energy sources was high among the industrialists five years back when the oil prices had hit through the roof internationally. The Punjab-based textile industry was looking eagerly for solar and biomass energy sources. The average cost per unit was considered to be high but still the industry had little option in the absence of uninterrupted electricity and gas supply. "The furnace oil price had touched Rs 80 per litre, a phenomenon which had raised the price to Rs 22 per unit through captive power plants," said one industrialist.
"However, the situation has changed altogether with the drop in furnace oil by half from the earlier highest level, which had brought the cost to Rs 10 per unit at present," he added. This situation has pushed the industry to deviate from the renewable energy sources for the time being. Meanwhile, the power sector sources termed the renewable energy option as a 'luxury', saying that even the public sector emphasis on these options has come down. They said the experiment of solar generation by the Punjab government has proved a failure, as the actual average generation was not more 9 megawatt per day. Similarly, they said the idea of 1320-megawatt coal power project in Sahiwal would remain a farfetched idea, as regular supply of 20,000 tons coal per day is not possible even three cargo trains are dedicated for it.