Pakistan’s Renewable Energy (RE) Policy 2006 that yielded almost 1,950 megawatts of commercially-operated wind, solar and biomass plants connected to the national grid can definitely be regarded as a success story. The RE Policy 2006 is a comprehensive document, equipped with an assortment of available options such as on-grid, off-grid, net-metering, wheeling and banking of energy with little or no change in the role of stakeholders as well as incentives offered to investors. Thus, in the face of the consensus-based policy paraphernalia already in place, the question for a new policy does not arise.
The only safeguard that this policy required was to follow a consistent and periodic review to allow the policy to evolve naturally in line with changing circumstances. In a country like Pakistan, which has already been a hotbed of debates between the federal and provincial governments in the realm of energy, the consensus-based RE policy 2006 was nothing less than a blessing.
On the contrary, it was given an unprecedented and premature expiry tag through the Economic Coordination Committee decision on 8th March 2013, restricting its validity up to March 2018. That was the first dent in the process of a smooth RE policy evolution.
In consequence of the above, the second and more formidable mistake was the decision to repeal the RE Policy 2006 abruptly and open the Pandora box of framing a new policy. This was unnecessary because there was nothing that the RE Policy 2006 did not offer. It is unlikely that the new policy, as appears from its draft form, will achieve anything beyond the agenda of the previous policy.
Presently, due only to the non-existence of any policy vehicle for over a year, a void was created in which neither the previous policy exists nor the new one has been finalised, thus discouraging investments.
There is nothing wrong in considering competitive bidding as a fundamental priority in the realm of renewable energy. However, this provision was already contained in the original policy therefore there was no need to get embroiled in the cumbersome process of formulating a new one.
Despite renewable energy projects currently having the lowest tariffs as determined by the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra), the RE projects are consistently being sacrificed under the pretext of either competitive bidding or the new RE Policy.
As things stand, many critical queries are being shoved under the rug. For example, the 30 per cent share of RE being targeted in the draft policy is unlikely to be achieved without a convincing road map.
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