Energy sector suffers owing to lack of vision & strategy: experts

Energy sector has immensely suffered due to lack of vision and strategy whereas focus has always remained on reckless capacity addition at exuberant cost. This was the expert opinion expressed at the 'Oil, Gas and Energy Conference 2019' that was 15th since its inception. Those spoke there included Director General, Pakistan Council of Renewable Energy Technologies, Dr Baqar Raza, Director, Alternative Energy Development Board (AEDB) Sheeraz Anwar Khan, CEO, Lakhra Coal Mining Company (LCMC) Toufeeq Ahmed,
Director Projects, Private Power & Infrastructure Board (PPIB) Engr Ali Nawaz, Assistant Director, Directorate of Alternative Energy, Sindh Energy Department, Asif Jehanzeb and others. "A number of power producing agreements have been signed with China under which bio, hydel, solar, wind energy will be produced, Baqar Raza said. He further said that National Energy Testing Laboratory was being set up at a cost of $ 10 million that would carry out up to 90 tests.
He said that power sector was also utilising Silicone Solar Cell Fabrication Technology (SSFT). He said that sustainable policies made for common people on long-term basis. AEDB director Sheeraz Anwar Khan suggested that readjustment of the generation mix should be at the heart of any remedial plan when going to address energy crisis in the country.
"Based on existing energy mix, Pakistan's dependence on the fossil fuel is 63 percent out of which 55 percent is on imported fuel which is a serious threat to our energy security," he alerted. Sheeraz said that Pakistan needs to quickly and heavily truncate the share of thermal power generation in the supply mix and also replace it with indigenous supplies.
"In 2016, total system capacity payments remained Rs 280 billion or Rs 3.4 per unit sold," he said, noting that is where the megawatts started coming in. However, in 2017, after inclusion of CPEC, capacity payments went up to Rs 350 billion and in 2018 capacity payments almost doubled from last year to Rs 644 billion or Rs 6.2 per unit. He said that is almost 60 percent of the power purchase price. He further alerted that capacity payment bill of close to Rs 900 billion that is Rs 9 per unit in 2019, sounds alarm.
"We haven't exploited the coal reserves that are found in abundance throughout the country," CEO of LCMC Toufeeq Ahmed complained. He said that Pakistan could produce electricity from coal-based power plants for at least 200 years. He further said that Pakistan had 1.328 billion tonnes coal and need to go for mechanised coal mining to fully exploit the opportunities from coal.
"Leading international investors and lenders are being invited to invest in Pakistan's power sector to materialise government commitment to overcome energy shortfalls," PPIB director projects Engr Ali Nawaz said, citing that for that goal, government has so far inducted 37 IPPs who were producing 15,469MW with cumulative investment of $ 16.7 billion. He said that more than 50 percent electricity is supplied to the national grid by IPPs while twelve projects of around 7,500MW would be producing energy by end-2022. Assistant Director DoAE (SED) Asif Jehanzeb called for renewable energy projects implementation under the framework of 'Policy for Development of Renewable Energy for Power Generation 2006.'
"Through this policy, local and foreign investors are fully protected under the Constitution of Pakistan, which guarantees purchase of all power generated from the project through bank guarantees of the federal government," he said.
For fulfilling the land requirements of power generation projects, Sindh government has exclusive policy for land allotment called 'Statement of Conditions for Grant of State Land on Lease 2015.'
Sharafat Ali Mangi of Mehran University of Engineering (Jamshoro), Altaf Rehman, commercial director at Aspen Aerogel Inc USA, Tayyab Rasheed, EVP, head of Investment Banking at Faysal bank, Mariam Khalid of Punjab Energy Efficiency and Conservation Agency, Ammad Ghafoor of Aveva UAE and Imtiaz H Baloch also shared their presentations.
Many experts complained that energy policy makers had largely ignored other important factors such as improvement in generation mix, augmentation of indigenous supplies, up-scaling of transmission and distribution system and institutional development.