Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Conflict has been intensified between the Ministry of Water and Power and the National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (NEPRA) on the issues of tariff on solar panel plants and coal power projects.

The senior officials of the Water and Power Ministry have rejected the tariff fixed by NEPRA and decided to move the court in this regard, due to which the future of the projects of generating cheap electricity has been put in peril.

The ministry took the stance that if the tariff of solar and coal power were not reduced, foreign investment would not turn up. Private power companies have also written letters to the ministry in which they rejected the tariff announced by NEPRA. They mentioned in their communications that their companies would fall bankrupt if the authorities went on with the plan. The ministry also sent a memorandum to NEPRA wherein they called the tariff “discriminatory”. They urged the authorities to review the decision and bring the tariff of solar and coal power at par with other countries. It is pertinent to mention here that owing to high rate of tariff, a Chinese firm working on a coal power project has applied for cancellation of its licence, due to which it is likely that work on two 660MW plants might be stopped.

The company in his application gave a reason that they were getting coal on exceedingly elevated rates for the period of 30 years, and if company would agree to it, it would move rapidly towards bankruptcy.

Sources said that China has evolved a strategy to take coal reserves of the entire world in its control. They also revealed that China would provide coal for the power companies that to be established under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), and its rates would also be decided by her. These rates are according to international standard, but the quality of coal is substandard.

“The behaviour of NEPRA regarding the tariff is quite non-serious and it could not give any proper reply in this connection. The Quaid-i-Azam Solar Power Plant, which was set up by the sitting PML-N government, is taking its last breaths, as it is generating only 25MW electricity instead of its full capacity of 100MW. The government was keen to take this project up to 300MW, but due to unacceptable tariff and extremely low production, the government is weighing its options regarding investment in the project,” a source said.

On the other hand, the government has reiterated its resolve to produce 1,000MW solar electricity in 2017, but the sources said that if the matter of high tariff was not resolved, the joint venture of Pakistan and Germany to set up a power plant in Lahore would also go in the doldrums. “If this happens, the government’s dream to bring load shedding to end by 2018 will be shattered,” said a source.

When this scribe tried to contact senior NEPRA officials for their take on the story, there was no response from the other side.