Power policies: Frequent changes shatters investors' confidence: expert

Former Manager Director, PPIB, N A Zuberi, in his presentation on the second day of Energy Week, said that frequent changes in power policies announced by the federal and provincial governments are shattering the confidence of investors.

He said that hydropower projects located in remote areas, lack of infrastructure and adverse security situation remained key challenges. He further stated that circular debt is a barrier for existing and future projects.

Vice Chairman Nepra Bahadur Shah expressed the hope that with the active interaction of industry and academia, Nepra will be able to steer the power sector on a path of sustainability where all Pakistanis will have access to affordable, reliable and sustainable electricity.

The generation session was focused on four major areas which included comparison of power sector of Pakistan with other countries around the globe, investments in renewable energy, modern electricity storage technologies and promotion of indigenous resources for electricity generation.

The generation session was attended by academia, from NUST and LUMS, international experts on energy from SIEMENS, International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and Wartsila. National and public sector entities also shared their ideas and suggested the way forward for Pakistan to achieve the goal of sustainable development.

The Energy Week concluded with the agreement of experts that Pakistan needs to tap hydro potential on Indus cascade which is almost 60,000MW and also needs to promote indigenous resources such as Thar coal and renewable energy to achieve energy security, reliability, affordability and ensure sustainable development in the country.

The 2nd day session concluded at 05:30pm. Chairman Nepra, Tauseef H Farooqi, in his closing remarks appreciated and thanked the team leader, speakers, panelists and all the participants for their valuable inputs. He also distributed souvenirs and certificates among the resource persons.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020

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