PM launches power consumer friendly net-metering framework

• Says PML-N fulfilled its obligation to overcome country’s energy deficit

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi on Wednesday said that Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) government has fulfilled its obligation of ending severe power load shedding and added 10,000MW of reliable, sustainable and cheap electricity to the national grid.

Addressing a ceremony to launch the consumer-friendly net-metering framework here at the Comsats Institute of Information Technology, the prime minister said before 2013, the governments were only able to generate 20,000MW of electricity in 66 years; however, in only a period of four years, the PML-N government added 10,000MW of electricity.

He said other projects to add another 15,000MW of electricity were in the pipeline, adding that this generation capacity would be enough to meet the needs of the country till 2030.

Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi today officially launched power consumer friendly net-metering framework. Under the system, power consumers would be able to generate their own #energy and sell the surplus to the national grid. pic.twitter.com/QzXYKzu7Pm

— Govt of Pakistan (@pid_gov) January 3, 2018

PM Abbasi said the streamlined system of net-metering would provide incentives to the common people to not only generate solar energy for their personal use, but also sell it to the government and get good returns.

“The potential is vast and would lead to better returns on their investments,” the PM said, adding that the country was now utilising a healthier diversified energy mix of hydel, nuclear, coal, LNG powered besides solar and wind generation.

He said today, the quantum of load shedding has drastically reduced, as the demand and supply gap has diminished, and the only issues were related to transmission and distribution constraints, which were being addressed. “Now, our challenge is to make the system more efficient, reliable and cheap,” he added.

The prime minister termed the launch of the improved net-metering system a milestone, adding that even though it is not new, it would go a long way in helping the government provide cleaner energy to those consumers who are not generating their own power. He said Pakistan would now be a step closer towards achieving its global climate change commitments.

Minister for Energy (Power Division) Sardar Awais Ahmed Leghari described the new concept as a bold step by the government and said it was exploring all avenues of power generation. He said in this regard, a new legislation was in the final stages to come up with a new five-year ‘National Electricity Plan’ that would provide a roadmap for future power generation projects, pricing issues and set highest standards for power consumers.

He said net-metering was a successful international phenomenon and was financially viable for household users.

Minister for Science and Technology Rana Tanveer Hussain said the use of renewable energy was part of the country’s Vision 2025 for diversifying the energy mix initiative. He was appreciative of the Comsats Institute for Information Technology for taking a lead role and said it has seven fully functional campuses across the country and was one of the leading universities in the country.

The net-metering system can now be installed by any domestic or commercial consumer by submitting a simplified form to the local SDO and the term for the contract has now been extended to seven years from the initial three years.