ISLAMABAD, 14 FEB (DNA) – Director General Hydropower, Private Power Infrastructure Board, Dr. Engineer Munawar Iqbal has said there is a need to harness the country’s hydropower potential to add clean and green electricity to the national grid system for sustainable economic development.
Pakistan has been blessed with huge resources for generating hydel and renewable energy (RE). The private sector should focus on investment in this sector in collaboration with the government. The Private Power Infrastructure Board is paying special attention to power generation from local resources, especially hydel, wind, and solar energy.
He expressed these views while talking to Acting President ICCI Engineer Azhar Islam during a meeting at the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry the other day.
He said that Pakistani investors should come forward and take advantage of the immense opportunities for investment in clean and green energy. There are vast opportunities in the energy sector in Pakistan and investors should benefit from it.
He said that his organization has so far successfully added over 18,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity to the national grid through Independent Power Producers (IPPs), which is about 50% of the total installed capacity. He said that PPIB is providing one window facility to investors and lenders in this regard.
He further said that at present the share of hydel in the energy mix is 25%, followed by solar energy with 6% and thermal with 69%. He further said that a target of 62% energy has been set through RE and hydel resources.
We intend to increase the reliance on local resources, the target is to add more green energy to the system in the next 10 years.
Acting President Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry Engineer Azhar Islam, while speaking on the occasion, said that the availability of cheap energy plays a key role in promoting business and economic activities, but electricity generated from oil in Pakistan is very expensive for the business community. It has increased the cost of doing business manifold. Therefore, the government should pay special attention to increasing the share of hydropower in the total energy production, which will reduce the cost of production and facilitate business activities and exports.
The Acting President said that Pakistan is mostly dependent on oil for power generation but due to the rising oil prices, this electricity has become very expensive and is a major reason for the increase in the cost of doing business in Pakistan.
He said that the share of thermal power in Pakistan’s total energy is more than 58% while the share of hydropower is only 28%. He stressed that the government should take concrete steps to increase the share of hydropower in the total power generation to at least fifty percent by 2030.
Pakistan has immense potential to generate electricity from renewable sources including water, wind and solar energy, which has not yet been exploited, which is unfortunate.
He said that electricity generated from renewable sources is also clean and environmentally friendly. Therefore, he stressed that the government should take all possible measures to increase the production of electricity from renewable sources including hydropower to generate cheap electricity, reduce the import bill, improve the competitiveness of the industry and increase exports, which will improve our economy rapidly.
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