Experts push for large scale renewable energy projects to minimise power crises

KARACHI: Experts called for accelerating large scale renewable energy (RE) procurement to avoid electricity crises in coming years at the launch of a study on Saturday.

The study titled ‘Reforming Net-metering in Pakistan: The Road Ahead’ was followed by a detailed discussion session, where renowned local and international experts from NEPRA, World Bank, CEEW India and REAP Pakistan shared their insights.

The session was moderated by Ammar Qaseem from Renewables First who started by highlighting the importance of Net Metering Reforms in light of its significant expansion in the coming years.

The national electricity planning document IGCEP 2022-31 has planned an addition of 4,320 MW of Net Metered solar PV by the year 2031, a more than five-fold increase over the current amount. Muhammad Shehram Alam presented the study by first going through a history of Net Metering reforms ever since the program’s inception in 2015.

He discussed examples of policy reforms and systematic tariff revisions in Vietnam and the US states of California and Florida.

He also shed light on how despite low compensations for surplus electricity in India, supplementary incentives played a key role in increasing capacity induction within a single year.

Neeraj Kuldeep from Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) emphasised the need for evolution in policy and the importance of making net metering an attractive option for prosumers.

He informed the audience that in various surveys carried out, pay back periods of 6 to 7 years were perceived positively by the residential sector.

Chairman Renewable Energy Association Pakistan (REAP), Nisar Latif said perceptions, whether right or wrong, were real and investor confidence regarding policy and tariff revisions was necessary.

When asked about the confidence in Indicative Generation Capacity Expansion Plan (IGCEP) net metering targets subsequent to proposal of tariff revisions, Imtiaz Baloch from National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) replied that the targets were reasonable, but the regulator was open to revising the figure in coming iterations of IGCEP in light of new evidence.

Oliver Knight from the World Bank regretted “the procrastination and foot dragging” that went on with regards to renewable energy targets in Pakistan and urged for accelerating large scale RE procurement to avoid expected electricity crises in the coming years.

While Knight acknowledged that distributed PV had many benefits if the incentives were properly aligned specially with regards to reducing circular debt from non-paying consumers, he was of the opinion that he could not see a huge rationale for a transitionary period before implementing proposed tariff reductions for net metering consumers.