Uzair bin Farid

The Government of Pakistan plans to produce 60% of its electricity using indigenous clean energy sources by 2030. According to the Indicative Generation Capacity Expansion Plan (IGCEP), Pakistan will switch to cleaner and greener sources of energy on an emergency basis to avoid further deterioration of environment.

The draft of IGCEP (2022) prepared by National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) is under discussion with the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA), according to Pakistan Economic Survey 2022-23. In the baseline scenario of the IGCEP, the total demand of electricity in the year 2030 will be 41,338MW, whereas the total installed capacity of the country’s power infrastructure will be 69,372MW.

Like other governments in the world, the Government of Pakistan aims to shift towards indigenous sources of power generation including hydel, solar, wind, and Thar coal. In the past, due to efforts by the successive governments, the share of alternative and renewable energy sources in the total generation capacity of the country has increased from 0 in the year 2014 to 6.8% in the current fiscal year.

In the same vein, the government has also approved the Framework Guidelines for Fast Track Solar Initiatives (2022) to expedite the process of developing cost-effective local renewable energy sources. Under the framework, public buildings will be solarised by substituting expensive imported fossil fuels with solar photovoltaic (PV) panels.

Nuclear energy is another very important source of clean energy that the government aims to utilise to produce clean energy. Nuclear power plants (NPPs) can run for 18 months without the need for refuelling. They also have the capacity to store fuel for another 18 months on site. In this way, they can be reliable sources for a clean and efficient energy generating system.

The ability of nuclear reactors to store fuel for future use saves from the inflationary and supply side shocks of the economy, and brings consistency in their prices and stability in their supply, respectively. As of now, there are six installed NPPs in the country. They have a total generation capacity of 3,530MW. Last year, till December 2022, they contributed 27% to the total electricity. The government has also planned to shift all the commissioned imported coal independent power producers (IPPs) to indigenous Thar coal. This will allow for resources to stay in the country and the need for forex reserves to buy imported coal will also decrease.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan-WealthPk