ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Power Sardar Awais Ahmed Khan Leghari on Monday attended a detailed session with Power Sector International Development Partners on Power Sector Reforms and its way forward.
The development partners were led by Country Director World Bank Najy Benhassineand included representatives from IMF, ADB, IFC, KFW, German Embassy, FCOD, UNDP and AIIB,
The Federal Minister apprised the participants about the reforms that the power division has undertaken to bring in efficiency and discipline with targets to bring the electricity prices to more competitive and affordable for all consumers in general and industry in particular.
The meeting between Power Minister and IDPs was held days after a very strong worded letter written by eight DFIs to the government on mistreatment with renewable IPPs.
The Minister while underscoring the importance of efforts to rationalize tariff of electricity for the economy of the country, assured the participants that all negotiations with IPPs are being held in a free fair and transparent manner with right to walk away from these negotiations or resort to arbitration or opt for forensic audit as per the terms of their agreements. He said that Government is taking all steps to engage all its development partners and in this regard has adopted an inclusive approach in policy formulation and execution process. He said that due to sheer maintenance of transparency the Government has been able to cut around 7000 MW from IGCEP from a total committed 17000 MW thus saving a huge amount of money in terms of expensive power.
Awais Leghari informed the participants about various reforms undertaken by the Power Division which includes transition from Take or Pay to Take and Pay, elimination of furnace oil based plants, conversion of imported coal to local coal. He said that Extensive and detailed study of power generation is being made which reveals that we have not adopted least cost policy in past but now it will be least cost.
He also apprised about that Removal of Transmission constraints by construction of Matriari Moro RYK lines , Ghazi Barotha FSD lines , Reactive Power Compensation Devices , Battery Storage system. He further informed about the process of splitting of NTDC in Energy Infrastructure and Development company and National Grid Company, Provision of electricity to SEZs by developing regulatory and contractual framework, SLAs with industries with Captive Generation, installing AMI and APMS Assets protection management system on 100% feeders.
About Elimination of circular debt, the Minister informed that the Government want to give clear visibility to finish it in next five to eight years. Elimination of electricity duties, rationalization of subsidies is yet another step toward rationalization of electricity tariff. He said that rationalization of net metering is also on the cards which is adding 150 billion rupees burden for rest of the consumers.
He informed the participants that Inducing incremental demand through marginal pricing, long term packages need for long term planning are need of the hour since surplus power is not being used by anyone adding capacity charges. He also apprised the participants about the wholesale market for electricity by adding that we have decided that the Government is not going to buy any further power.
The Minister also apprised the participant about the Privatization of DISCOs, improving Governance of DISCOs Boards, and reforms at Power Planning and Management Company.
The participants appreciated the reforms initiated by the Power Division and assured their support in the process.Ends
