Wind power sector is looking for the support of PM who has recently chaired the meeting of Cabinet Committee on Energy (CCoE) held on 24th April 2017, where the PM has instructed the power ministry to immediately resolve upfront tariff issues with NEPRA for different kinds of fuels, including LNG, solar, coal, furnace oil, diesel and gas and ordered all line departments to work out immediate solutions for administrative and legal issues that were holding up the implementation of energy projects on a priority basis. It has been learned that a number of wind projects which have completed the requirements of their respective LOIs are awaiting upfront tariff to be announced by NEPRA since June 2016.
It is learned that NEPRA was earlier stopped from announcing the upfront tariff for the wind projects and was asked to switch over to the long and tedious process of competitive bidding. The wind projects have shortest construction time of 15 to 18 months with current tariffs as low as between 6 to 8 cents, are now can be cheapest and cleanest form of power. Had the upfront tariff been announced in time during June 2016 most of these projects could have been near to completion by now giving some relief from load shedding to the public.
Sources in NTDC have also confirmed that over 1200 MW of wind power can be absorbed in the grid in 2019 and PC I for the schemes to make the necessary infrastructure available have already been approved. The inaction and continued lapses in promoting the wind projects, while the whole world is switching to wind and solar energy, is once again making the public suffer for the negligence on the part of the line departments.