Federal Minister for Energy Sardar Awais Ahmad Leghari announced plans to revise the country’s solar net metering policy.
“We are facing an issue of solar net metering these days,” Leghari stated at a press conference with Minister of State for Finance, Revenue, and Power Ali Pervaiz Malik.
He said if needed, the policy in this regard will be revised after thorough studies and taking aboard all stakeholders within the next two months.
“The government is studying the impacts of the increasing trend of rooftop-generated electricity, assessing the rate of return on investments in solar equipment, and analyzing the effect of solar panels on electricity prices for local households.”
The minister mentioned that Pakistan, like other countries, will analyze and balance the solar net metering system.
He, however, refuted all fabricated news reports, assuring that the government would protect those investors’ interests by making no changes in their agreements with respective companies.
Around one-and-a-half years ago, solar panels were costly and the investors (of domestic connections) had been recovering their investment for around three years, but today, the solar panels prices are low and the investment recovery time is reduced to one and a half years, the minister added.
The minister said that the PML-N government had encouraged solarisation in 2017, and currently, 113,000 connections are on net meters. He affirmed that the government supports continuing solar net metering, promoting renewable energy, and taking steps to eliminate power theft to reduce the financial burden on the national exchequer.
He reported an 8% reduction in electricity demand, noting that the power demand was 19,000MW, while Discos generated over 16,500MW, with over 4,000MW of “economic load-shedding” on feeders experiencing high losses.
To reduce losses in the power sector, the energy minister emphasized the continuation of the anti-power theft drive across the country. He also mentioned that billing issues in many Discos have been recognized, and new boards will be formed to run power firms independently.
Leghari added that the country aims to overcome the power crisis by completing various hydroelectric power generation projects in the next six to seven years.
