The government is likely to offer tariff concessions on the import of energy conservation products like geysers/burners for effectively dealing with the crises. This was decided at a high level meeting held to review National Energy Conservation under the chairmanship of Federal Minister for Environment, Hameed ullah Jan Afridi here on Monday.
The meeting was attended by Managing Director ENERCON, Farid Ullah Khan, representatives of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources, Industries and Production, Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), Food and Agriculture, Capital Development Authority (CDA), National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra), Provincial Environmental Protection Agencies and other stakeholders involved in energy conservation.
The Ministry of Environment has requested Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) and Ministry of Petroleum to finalise proposals for discouraging unregulated imports of domestic appliances, adoption of standards for import and local manufacture to compete with regional economies especially India and China.
Afridi said that Government is committed to provide relief to the people and is working on a 100-day crash programme for Energy Conservation to minimise the load shedding.
"The objective of this programme is to give relief to the masses against energy crunch through conservation. Therefore 10 million energy savers will be distributed free of cost which will help save 850 MW electricity," said Afridi.
Besides this if government would decrease the regular working days to five it would ultimately help preserve 750 MW electricity, said the minister.
The Minister for Environment reviewed a host of energy conservation measures in consultation with all the consumers and stakeholders in different sectors of the economy.
The meeting decided to mandate the Provincial Environment Departments to look after the implementation of the approved energy conservation policy to spread ownership for conservation of energy measures.
Officials of Provincial government and Development Authority were asked to form a proposal for the introduction of energy audits and efficiency considerations in all industrial entities, commercial, government and community buildings for the sake of conserving energy. Representatives of Pepco were directed to make a proposal on the introduction of Time of Use (ToU) meters, multiple tariff and load staggering for all major industrial and domestic consumers.
Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock (Minfal) was asked to come up with a proposal for the energy efficient tube wells and water pumping stations for conserving energy.
Ministry of Industries was asked to make a proposal for the correction of combustion processes, controls, instrumentation, tune-up of combustion furnaces and boilers. Besides, the FBR was asked to initiate a proposal ensuring easy availability and mandatory use of climatically suitable insulation materials, fixtures, equipment and appliances for efficient HVAC and lightening.
The meeting decided that all respective entities will designate Energy Managers to improve energy efficiency. The decision will be inculcated among industry and all development authorities.
The Minister stressed the need to exploit energy conservation potential as generation is not an immediate remedy available to the country. He urged the concerned departments to minimise line losses of the electricity and gas.
Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Resources was asked to initiate a proposal on the reduction of gas theft from 6 percent to 4 percent. Talking about producing of energy through solid waste, the minister said that in the past various efforts were made to do this but none of them turned fruitful. However, in order to conserve energy Capital Development Authority (CDA) is soon installing a plant to produce energy from solid waste, he added.
"Not only in the federal capital this plant will be installed but in all provinces, the government is looking forward to take this initiative," said the Minister.
While replying to a question regarding wind energy, the Minister said that in southern region there is a capacity to produce wind energy. "Almost 90 MoUs had been signed between the government and foreign investors. But the main hurdle is that foreign investors are asking government to lease 100 acres of land for 99 years, which is not been accepted by the provincial government."