The new policy for alternative and renewable energy (ARE) will replace the existing short-term policy prepared in 2006. It will encompass all alternative and renewable energy sources, strengthen financial mechanisms and expand scope for rural energy services.
The draft of the policy will be discussed at a consultative workshop in Islamabad on Monday. Water and Power Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf will chair the workshop.
The off-grid alternative and renewable energy policy is aimed at providing electricity to villages, settlements and scattered households not connected to the power grid by employing renewable or hybrid technologies.
The qualifying target settlements are those not included in any national or regional grid expansion plan and are located beyond 20km of the existing power grid. The villages and scattered dwellings can be supplied electricity based on renewable sources of energy generation, either by stand-alone or mini-grid systems with an installed generation capacity of less than 5MW.
Technologies under the policy will be addressed to mini-hydel, hybrid systems, solar photo voltic and thermal, mini-wind systems, bio-energy resulting from anaerobic gas digesters, pyrolitic biomass, gasification and co-generation.
According to the policy objectives, Pakistan needs to initiate a sustained, long-term transition towards greater use of ARE — an indigenous, clean and abundant resource whose considerable potential the country has yet to tap meaningfully.
The short-term policy of 2006 was extended to 2009 from its originally stipulated expiry date of June 30, 2008. The policy had potential problems in achieving the renewable source of energy penetration goals.
At least five per cent of the grid-connected installed capacity will be met through alternative and renewable energy by 2030, five per cent of diesel supply will be met through bio-diesel by 2015 and 10 per cent of diesel supply will be met through bio-diesel by 2025.
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