ISLAMABAD: The government transferred administrative control of National Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (NEECA) from Power Division to Ministry of Science and Technology (MoS&T), official sources told Business Recorder.
Senior Joint Secretary, Cabinet Division, Taimur Tajammal in a memorandum has communicated this to all the concerned authorities. Necessary amendments in the Rules of Business 1973 will be made accordingly.
NEECA was established under an Act of Parliament in 2016, erstwhile known as National Energy Conservation Centre (ENERCON). NEECA was supposed to serve as a federal focal agency mandated for initiating and coordinating all energy conservation activities in different sectors of the economy.
Further, the major portion and relevant provisions of the National Energy Efficiency & Conservation Act are focusing on the formulation of product standards and are linked to the approval of the National Standards Body under PSQCA.
The sources said, to develop and implement the Energy Efficiency Standard & Labelling (EES&L) programmes and the Energy Conservation Building Code as per the NEECA Act, NEECA has to rely on the MoS&T and the institutions under its administrative control like Pakistan Standards and Quality Control Authority (PSQCA), Pakistan National Accreditation Council (PNAC), Pakistan Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR) and Pakistan Engineering Council (PEC).
NEECA likely to go under the wing of MoS&T
With the recent decisions to increase electricity tariff, accelerating the energy efficiency initiatives without delay in all sectors of the economy was the top priority of the MoS&T, the sources added.
Different initiatives have already been taken by the MoS&T in this regard through the departments under its administrative control. Almost all the technical initiatives of NEECA as specified in the NEECA Act are dependent on the institutions under the administrative control of MoS&T like the Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS), accredited testing lab facilities, building code including the energy provisions etc.
The MoS&T, in a letter dated February 02, 2022, requested Ministry of Energy (Power Division), Institutional Reforms Cell (IRC) and Ministerial Wing of Cabinet Division for their views/comments as per rules.
Ministerial Wing of Cabinet Division stated that in case both the Divisions agree with each other, the Cabinet Division has no objection to the proposal. IRC in another letter of February 08, 2022 stated that IRC supports the transfer of NEECA and suggested that possibility may be explored for future merger of NEECA with one of similar bodies of Ministry of Science & Technology (e.g. PSQCA) to ensure more efficient and economic utilization of resources.
The sources maintained that Ministry of Energy (Power Division), in its comments sent on February 17, 2022 has endorsed the proposal of MoS&T for placing NEECA under the administrative control of MoS&T, operational activities of NEECA are most cohesive with institutions of MoS&T i.e. PSQCA, PNAC, PEC and PCSIR and to enable the MoS&T to implement different energy efficiency initiatives swiftly for public interest, national energy security, minimizing the rate of increasing energy poverty and mitigation of Green House Gasses (GHG) emissions.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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