Nepra's vision: KE continues to make efforts towards carbon-free future: CEO

KARACHI: Aimed at making renewable energy easily affordable for the masses, K-Electric joined hands with Akhuwat Islamic Microfinance (AIM) and signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on Wednesday to provide a massive revolving grant for interest-free loans for households and small business owners so that they can install solar power units without any financial strain.

The initiative taken by the utility is in line with its commitment towards environment protection and sustainability which also coincides with Nepra's Vision of power with prosperity. K-Electric already possesses 250 MW of renewable power in its energy mix and apart from this 350 MW of renewable energy projects are also in the pipeline.

This venture has come at a time when solar power makes less than 2% of the entire power mix. With the government's intent of boosting the share of clean and green energy up to 60% of the total energy mix by the year 2030 under the leadership of Prime Minister Imran Khan, this initiative will prove to be a game-changer and an avenue to provide access to a clean energy source in an affordable manner for homeowners and small businesses.

Moonis Alvi, CEO - K-Electric, while expressing his support to the initiative, added, "As the world is focusing on addressing the climate change problem, K-Electric is leading various projects for environmental protection and sustainability. I am pleased that K-Electric is also contributing to this solarization project that coincides with Social Development Goal (SDG) 7, which is to make renewable energy more accessible for all. It is also inspiring to see that the honorable chairman and members from the Nepra have a special focus on societal development which encourages organizations to undertake ambitious community upliftment programmes."

Chairman Akhuwat Foundation, Dr Amjad Saqib said, "It is one of its kind initiatives in Pakistan that organizations are collaborating on such scale to make renewable energy solutions easily affordable for the masses. This initiative is not only a milestone towards reducing energy poverty in the country but also a step towards making a carbon-free future. We will look forward to seeing more members of the power industry joining hands and taking the lead in realizing Nepra's Vision of Power with Prosperity."

Host of the ceremony and the initiator of the Power with Prosperity project, Chairman Nepra - Tauseef Farooq gave special recognition to the project and said, "Extremely delighted to see that different organizations are gathering today under Nepra's CSR banner of Power with prosperity. As a regulator, Nepra is striving to create an enabling environment to promote the culture of shared value and inclusiveness in the power sector. This initiative is one among many other steps taken by Nepra in the recent past to bring improvement in the power sector's culture. Moreover, nearly 30% of Pakistanis are still living today without electricity, Nepra is leading such initiatives to bridge this gap between the served and unserved communities of Pakistan. It is the moment of ultimate satisfaction that Nepra is facilitating a partnership between power companies and social development organizations for the benefit of all such communities at large.

We appreciate Engro Power and K-Electric for playing a remarkable role in our efforts in promoting the use of green energy for greener Pakistan. We are also sure that as these companies have set an example for all other companies in the sector to follow and join hands in the near future".

Copyright Business Recorder, 2021